The Next Generation
by TigerFlower
Summary: The story is pretty much what the title is, the next generation of Teen Titans. Some Titans of old, some I made myself. Just read, please. Note: this is my first story on this site, so it's a lot more sucky than my more recent stuff
1. Chapter 1

**Prelude**

The night was cold and windy, far too windy for almost anyone's liking. If there had been any leaves on the autum trees before, there were none now. But there was at least one person who didn't mind, even though she was not entirely a person herself. The half Tamaranian side of her seemed to be able to withstand the crisp air, though her human side was a little uneasy. But it was not like it was her choice to be out here, for she had nowhere else to go anyway. She had previously lived with her mother for the past fifteen years, but a recent arguement of theirs had made her leave for now. Though her mother wasn't much for arguing, she could withstand to do it for hours at a time, as long as she thought she was right.

Her parents had split a few years ago, surprisingly. Though it was not divorce, they still had not gotten back together and doubted they ever would.

And yes, the parents are our heroes Robin and Starfire, but more commonly known as Nightwing and Kory. Kory had changed her name after the birth of their daughter, whom they named Stardust.

Now she sat on a large rock beside the creek, alone in the middle of the dark woods. She and her mother had argued for so long that night that Stardust could hardly remember what the quarrel had been about. She closed her eyes and pulled her knees to her chest, sulking silently. And she somehow found herself blaming her father, though she didn't know why. She had blamed everything on him recently, and felt as if she couldn't help but be angry at him. But in reality, the split been him and Kory had not been all his fault, even though he could righteously take some of the blame.

Stardust suddenly picked up a noise deep in the woods, and this time it was not the wind; she could tell. It sounded like othermovement. She stood up on the rock and fired up her purple starbolts, glancing at all her surroundings quickly. She had inhereted her lightning fast reflexes from Nightwing, and the rest of her powers from Kory. Stardust was already very good at handling her emotion-driven powers and was about to show it to whatever was stalking her.

Now something moved behind her. She whirled around and held up her glowing hand to get better light. Yes, there was definitely someone there, and whoever it was was fast and obviously watching her. There was a flash of white, and Stardust's heart started pounding. Well, she knew how to fight and she thought she was going to have to show off her powers very soon.

But little did she know, that this was the very beginning of something she had never planned.


	2. Chapter 2

Stardust flexed her hands and watched the purple light of her starbolts dance on the trees in the otherwise dark woods. There was obviously someone in the shadows watching her, or perhaps even stalking her. And if they hadn't gotten the hint that she wasn't going down without a fight, she was about to give them good reason to fear.

"All right, show yourself!" she yelled. "If you're looking for a fight, you've at least come to the right place."

Silence, and no movement. Only a light breeze rustled the leaves on the trees.

_Maybe they went away, _she thought, letting her starbolts die down, but she did not dare relax. Her mother had trained her too much and too thoroughly for that. So she had to be prepared for anything.

And suddenly, there came an unexpected voice. Deep, British, and almost graceful. "I do not wish to appear to be a threat to you. Please don't be afraid."

Stardust recovered from the shock of the pleasent voice and felt her eyes glow purple. "What? I am not afraid of you. So get out of the shadows and fight me already."

"I do not want to fight you."

Stardust narrowed her glowing eyes. "You will, if you don't at least show yourself."

He laughed gently. "Of course."

Stardust had to force herself to close her mouth when he came from the shadows. He was tall, solid, and had long, light colored hair. She found him quite attractive, but suddenly hurled a starbolts in his direction, but he dodged quickly, obviously surprised at her sudden attack.

"Why don't you just stay away from me?" she growled, the power in her eyes dying down and returning to normal. She wondered why he showed no surprise to her superpowers.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to make you feel threatened. I just wanted to talk to you."

"Well, I can hear you, you know. So start talking."

"How do I know you're not going to attack me again?"

"You can't be sure of that. Just get on with what you want to say."

"I just wanted to know your name."

Stardust bristled. "That's none of your business. And how long have you been stalking me?"

"I am not stalking you-"

"Then why do I get the impression that you are? Just go away, or else."

He ignored her warning and instead, walked in her direction. Stardust's eyes charged up again and she reached down and ripped the rock she had been sitting on out of the ground and hurled it at him. He made no attempt to move, but shot white-hot electricity from his hand, and when it made contact with the rock, he seemed to have control of it. But instead of throwing it back at her, he stopped it from hitting him and let it drop to the ground with a heavy smash.

"There's no need for violence. And forgive me for not introducing myself properly."

"You didn't introduce yourself at all."

"Forgive me," he repeated. Then he bowed at the waist. "I am Rorek."

"Well... I'm Stardust."

To her great surprise and embarrassment, he took her hand kissed it gently. She pulled it away and placed it on her hip. "Are you always so friendly with girls?"

"I was only trying to be polite."

"Of course you were," Stardust said with sarcasm. It didn't seem to make him angry, though.

"I couldn't help but notice that you've been sitting out here for quite a while. You didn't appear to be very happy. Is something wrong?"

"That's not any of your business... whatever you said your name was."

"Rorek-"

"And besides," she continued, "if I want to sit out here all night, I'll do it, and I _should_ be able to do it without being spied on, you know. And that's pretty much what you were doing."

"I am sorry. I just found you quite-" he put his knuckles to his mouth and cleared his throat, "-interesting. Attractive."

Stardust raised an eyebrow. "Really. I thought it was something along those lines. Turns out I was right... as usual."

"I did not mean it that way."

"Then how did you mean it?" He paused, silent for a few moments until he took a breath to speak again. "I could tell you had powers."

She was suddenly alarmed. "How? What made you think that?"

"I don't know, but I could just tell. Though you do not look anything but normal."

"Well what did you expect me to look like?" She flipped her long black hair and turned her back to him.

"I do not know."

She looked at him over her shoulder. "You say that a lot." She expected him to apologize again, but he was silent. "So, where do you come from?"

"London."

"It's kinda funny, you looked like you've been ripped from the pages of a mideavel book or something." She laughed, but he only stared at her.

"I'm not sure how I ended up here. Where am I, by the way?" "You're in California, in the United States. You sure traveled a long way to not know how you got here. What's up with that?"

"Well, it's a-" he stopped in mid-sentence and held up a hand.

"What? What is it?" she said, straining to hear what alarmed him, but everything seemed silent. "I don't hear anything."

"Neither do I." She frowned at him, but he continued. "I feel vibrations in the ground."

Now that he mentioned it, the ground did seem a little unstable. She lifted one foot and looked frantically around the dark trees for any sign of danger. But suddenly, the ground literally opened up beneath them. Rorek backflipped gracefully out of the way and Stardust flew quickly in the air. A mechanical humanoid emerged from the earth, then laid its eyes on Stardust and reached out an extending arm. She dodged, still in the air, and fired off a few starbolts, which harmlessly tore up the ground beside the robot. She turned and flew away, the robot not moving, but it's arm still extending.

"Why is it they always come after me?" she mumbled, then threw five more starbolts into the mechanical hand, but it didn't do much damage. Then it lurched forward and wrapped tightly around her shoulders, dragging her backwards towards the robot's body. _Boundless confidence, _Stardust thought, summoning her super strength and bursting free from the arm, as it broke into pieces. But another one seemed to grow right out of the robot and was coming after her again. She prepared her starbolts, but a white shield appeared in front of her, and the hand smashed into it. Rorek seemed to somersault out of nowhere, and he landed on the robot's face with a hard kick. It went smashing into the ground.

"So, I guess you're gonna help me fight this thing?" Stardust said.

"If you accept my help, my lady."

She was so stunned at what he had just called her, that she didn't notice another mechanical hand coming at her until it was too late. It latched around her face, and she dug her fingers in, trying to tear it off, but it held tight. She finally blasted through with her eye beams.

"Your powers are quite impressive," Rorek yelled, skipping tree branches.

"Thanks!" she yelled back, throwing a monstrous punch and connecting with the robot's chest, leaving a gaping hole.

White electricity exploded from the ground and blew the robot yards away. Stardust turned and grinned and Rorek, then flew over him, taking his arms as she went. He seemed to know right away what the plan was, and Stardust swung him hard, though never letting go of his arms, and he timed the kick perfectly, smashing the robot again in the chest, and this time it was broken in half.

Stardust dropped Rorek gently to the ground and threw up her fist in victory. "Yes! That was almost too easy though. Thanks for your help."

Rorek bowed again. "My pleasure. Stardust?"

"What?"

"Perhaps I can see you again sometimes." "You're leaving already? But we just defeated-"

"I know, but... I have somewhere I really need to be. I will try to see you again. Perhaps I could speak with your father?"

Stardust frowned. "My father? Why?" She didn't want to mention that Nightwing was her father- nor did she want to mention that she never had anything to do with him.

"I'm sorry, but I must go." He bowed again, and in a plume of white elecricity, he was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Stardust opened her apartment door quietly, expecting her mother to be asleep at this hour, but was surprised to see her awake and sitting at the kitchen table.

"Mom, what are you doing up so late?" she said, closing the door quietly to avoid waking anyone else in the thin walled, four-story building.

"I wish to apologize," Kory said. "For the disagreement we had earlier."

"Oh yeah... that." Stardust took a deep breath. "I'm sorry too. Can we forget about it?"

"Yes, let us imagine it never happened," her mother said joyfully. She still spoke the same way she had when she was a teenager, but her voice was womanly and much more mature.

"Awesome," Stardust said, smiling. Then she cleared her throat and sat on the edge of the table. "I've gotta tell you something, so don't get mad at me, okay?"

"I will not be angry at you."

Stardust looked at her fingernails. "I know you told me to never use my powers unless it was an emergency, but tonight I had to. This robotical thing came right out of the ground and was attacking me, and I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't run away- well, I could have, but it would have just followed me back here. So I fought."

Kory smiled softly. "Stardust, your powers are a gift that do not need to be handled shamefully. I only requested holding them back so other students at your place of schooling would not look at you any differently than anyone else. When you have to use your powers, you just have to. Sometimes there is no getting around it."

"I know. But when I used them tonight I kinda felt like I was disobeying you- like I was doing something wrong."

Kory looked crushed and angry at herself. She reached out a hand and took Stardust's. "I am sorry for making you feel that way. Please, from now on use your powers for good when _you _feel the need to, not when you believe I would want you to." Now she smiled. "I have seen you in training, and you handle your emotions well. I feel you no longer need my guidance. I have trained you well enough."

Stardust smiled too. "That's true. I couldn't have had a better teacher."

Kory opened her arms. "I wish for an embrace!"

Stardust laughed, and they hugged. Kory's history for hugging people too hard had not really ended, but since they both had super strength, they crushed each other in a loving way.

Stardust pulled back from the hug and brushed her long hair back with her hand. "There's something else. Well, not really that big of a deal, but I guess it's something."

"What is it?"

"I met someone before I fought with the robot."

"You have made a friend?"

"Maybe, I don't know. They didn't stay around for long- _he _didn't stay for long."

Kory's eyes softened. "You have met a boy?"

Stardust shrugged and blushed. "I don't really know him."

"What is his name? What does he look like?"

"His name's Rorek. He's a little taller than me, and he's got long hair, and he wears armor. He has super powers. And he talks with a British accent."

"Is he handsome?" Stardust blushed harder. "Yeah."

Kory leaned forward in her chair and put a thin finger to her chin. "He seems to be familiar in some way. But I cannot place it."

Stardust swallowed hard. "I probably won't see him again. But anyway, I'm gonna go on to bed. It's late."

"Yes. I wish you a good night."

"Night."

Stardust went to her small bedroom and changed clothes. School had just started back a few weeks ago, so she had plenty of new outfits to choose from for the next day. As she sorted through them, she came across one she had never worn before, though she had known it was there. It was a Tamaranian uniform, though unlike most of the people's on the planet, hers was a light blue instead of purple. She had seen her mother's before, the one she had worn when she had been part of the Teen Titans years ago. Stardust's was a lot the same, but the armor covered most of her arms except her elbows, and most of her hands except her fingers, her neckplate was different, and much more of her skin was covered. But the skirt and the boots were the same, only blue. She sighed and threw it all back in the closet. She didn't even know why she had the uniform, but suddenly found herself dying to wear it. But she just closed the closet door and fell into bed, and as she laid there she also found herself thinking about Rorek and his sharp blue eyes. She pulled the covers over her head.

The next morning came in a couple of hours. The alarm clock almost split Stardust's ears, and she reached over and slammed a fist on the clock, smashing it to bits and rocking the nighttable. She peeked from under the covers and sighed. Her bad.

"Stardust, I am leaving for my job now," Kory said from the other side of the door. "Please do not be late for your schooling."

"Yeah, I'm going. Bye, Mom."

"Good-bye."

Stardust got out of bed and changed clothes in the bathroom, ate breakfast, brushed her teeth, and grabbed her heavy backpack. She heard the bus already outside, and she locked the door and went out to catch it before it left without her. She could just very well fly to school and beat the bus there with time to spare, but she still wanted to seem as normal as possible, so that's why she took the bus. She sat down in a seat by herself, as usual, and fell asleep quickly. The bus seemed to stop two seconds later, so she dragged herself into the school.

Everything she did at school she did alone. Unfortunately, she had no friends, which remained a mystery to Kory. Stardust was friendly and likeable, but the other students seemed to sense something different about her. She couldn't just say, 'Hi, I'm half-alien and I have super powers'. It just wouldn't work that way, so Stardust found it best to hide it all.

By the end of the day, she was so tired she was about to drop. She carried her backpack on one shoulder, oblivious to everything, until the halls were so crowded there wasn't space to breathe, and countless people ran into her. She tried to ignore them, but it was nearly impossible, so she just kept walking. A few minutes later the halls cleared out some, and she let herself relax a little. Suddenly she thought of Rorek again. Where did he stay on these cool, windy nights? And where was he now?

Someone's shoulder hit hers hard, purposefully. Her backpack fell off and hit the floor.

"Watch where you're going," the girl that ran into her growled. Courtney was her name, and she was tall and big-boned, almost muscley. Not out of proportion for a girl, but she was definitely someone that nobody messed with. Stardust ignored her and reached down for her backpack, but the girl kicked it across the hall and crossed her arms.

Stardust tried to keep herself calm, but she hadn't slept the night before and she was not in a good mood today. She jumped forward and grabbed Courtney's shirt, lifting her off the ground and slamming her into the wall. Stardust's eyes glowed purple and she pulled back a deadly fist, then noticed the terrified look on the other girl's face. She threw her to the ground and glared down at her. "Do you have a problem?"

The entire hall was silent. All of the kids were frozen, staring at her with frightened expressions. Stardust knew her glowing eyes must have been the thing that scared them, or her effortless lifting of the other girl with one hand. Probably both. She turned to them. "What's wrong with you? Didn't expect me to defend myself, did you?" She pointed a finger at Courtney. "And if you have a problem, you can meet me off campus. How about it?" Courtney shook her head quickly. "Didn't think so." Stardust's eyes turned back to normal and she flipped her black hair over her shoulder, then picked up her backpack and walked out of the school without another word.

She didn't want to take the bus, so she walked home, throwing her backpack inside, then left again. When she was in the woods, she went back to the spot where she had met Rorek the night before. The ground was torn to pieces and the nearby trees were black and some split in half. She sat down pulled her knees to her chest.

"Something troubles you, love?" _Rorek. _Her head snapped up almost joyfully and she saw him sitting on a tree branch a few yards up.

"Rorek! I- I didn't see you. Uh, where have you been?"

"Different places since last night. I was hoping you would come back here."

"Oh." She was dumbfounded. But she guessed a lot of girls were around Rorek. "Well, I had school today, so I would have come earlier, but I really couldn't."

"It's quite all right." He jumped down from the tree, and she got a better look at him. His hair was almost white, though she didn't know how, and his eyes were a much prettier blue than she had thought last night, and he _was _wearing armor, and he had a long scarf around his neck, and she thought he smiled but she couldn't really tell because of the muffler covering his mouth and nose.

"I wished we could have talked more last night," she stuttered. "But it was late, you know."

"Since I'm not from around here, perhaps you could show me around your town?" he suggested politely.

"Sure. Come with me." She showed him around nervously, but he seemed pretty calm as he toured the city. When they got to the bridge, she took his wrist and flew to the highest beam she saw, and they both sat down.

"This is quite a view," he said, looking out over the water.

"Yeah. Sometimes I come here at night, and all the city lights reflect on the water- it's really beautiful."

"I would imagine so."

Stardust sighed. For some reason she felt like she could just spill her heart to him. "I had a problem in school today. Her name's Courtney, and I got overly angry and made the mistake of letting everyone know I have super powers. Who knows if I'll go back to school again."

"Why not?"

"People will think I'm a freak. And I'm not a freak, I'm just different."

"That's true." He shifted his weight and turned to look at her. "Do you mind telling me why you have powers?"

Stardust looked away. "My mother. She's from a planet called Tamaran. Or in other words, it's alien powers."

"Is your father from that planet also?"

"No, he's completely human. I'm surprised I inherited as much power as I did from my mother. Starbolts, eye beams, flight, and super strength- the whole nine yards, you could say. But they're not always so easy to control. They're driven by emotion, so I need to be careful of what I feel so I don't blow things up or stuff like that."

"You seem to be doing a good job, as far as I have seen." He reached out, his fingertips touching her arm. She blushed and smiled, then opened her mouth to speak, but the bridge suddenly shook violently, causing them both to lose their balance, but Stardust used her power of flight to stop herself from falling, and she caught Rorek by the arm on the way down.

"What was that?" she exclaimed, then the bridge literally split in two. She gasped as she saw an awful-looking sea monster emerge from the water. Each of its teeth had to be as long as two people. Civilians screamed below, but luckily there hadn't been many cars on the bridge at the time.

"I guess we should take it upon ourselves to stop this creature?" Rorek suggested, clutching Stardust's wrist tightly.

"I guess so." She kept her grip on Rorek and flew down towards the monster. "You keep that thing busy and I'll try to save the bridge." She dropped him near the monster and flew under the bridge, which was just moments away from hitting the water. She placed her hands on it and started pushing upwards while flying. The bridge moaned as its weight fought Stardust's strength, but she was far from giving up now. She growled as she kept pushing, and when she opened her eyes she saw that Rorek had already defeated the monster and was on his way up to help her. She pushed with all her might, and the bridge finally evened out, and Rorek soldered it together with his powers. She flew up beside him and grinned. "Good job."

"Thank you." They left the bridge and went to solid ground. Then they were blinded by a camera flash, and Stardust was horrifed to see news reporters surrounding them.

"We thought the Teen Titans were long gone," a woman said into her microphone, "but it seems we have new heroes in our city." She turned from the camera to Stardust and Rorek. "Anything you kids would like to say?"

"Um..." Stardust stammered. She looked at Rorek, but he offered no verbal help. "It's uh, all in a day's work I guess."

"Have you sworn to protect the city and the civilians within?"

Stardust narrowed her eyes and looked into the camera, allowing herself to smile slightly. "I haven't before, but now I do. Either on a team or by myself, I'll do whatever I can to keep this city safe. I've noticed that, no offense, but the PD is not enough. This city needs something more, just like it used to have years ago. This city _needs _the Teen Titans. And so just to let everybody know, I am Starfire's daughter, Stardust. And I will protect the city, as much as I can. The Teen Titans should not just disappear. You need them. But the best I can give you is, well, the next generation of Titans. Me."


	4. Chapter 4

The next night was unusually dark and dreary. Rain pounded hard on the apartment windows, and the thunder and lightning was almost continuous. The storm had lasted for hours with no sign of letting up, but Stardust was busy rummaging through her closet and waiting for her mother to get home from work. She was nervous about what she wanted to tell her, but she knew Kory would not do anything bad to her. She never had, so there was no reason to start thinking that she would now. Stardust found what she was looking for and smiled. The light blue Tamaranian uniform that would hopefully fit her. She tried it on and looked in the mirror, relieved to see a perfect fit. She felt strange but quite important in it, and she examined it thoroughly and was well pleased.

The front door opened and Stardust knew her mother was home. She went out to meet her.

"Hello, Stardust," Kory said cheerfully, though she was struggling with the things in her hands and was covered in raindrops.

"Hi," Stardust replied, shifting her weight to the side and putting her hand on her hip. She wanted her mother to notice what she was wearing, and she did.

"You look quite lovely, but why are you wearing that?" Kory said.

"Yesterday there was some sort of sea monster that split the bridge down the road in two."

"Yes, I heard about that."

"I defeated it and saved the bridge. Me and a friend."

"But I do not know what it has to do with the uniform." She was still smiling good-naturedly.

"I've been thinking a lot, and I've decided that I want to fight crime- like you used to do when you were my age. If I can't have a team of my own, I at least want to do this by myself. You said so yourself that the city needed the kind of protection that it used to have."

"I did say that. But you do not know how dangerous a job of crime fighting can be. Your life is risked every day, and you do not ever know what is going to happen next."

"I know, but I can do it. I _want_ to do it. I have the time, and I don't want my powers to go to waste. You said that wasn't good."

"It is not good. But you do not have the time, not with your schooling-"

"I can drop out of school and study at home when I have the time. Believe me, Mom, it'll all fit together. It did for you."

"It was different for me," Kory said, setting her things on the kitchen table. "You know about my past, Stardust. I escaped slavery from Tamaran and was rescued by a team of heroes. I did not have family or schooling on Earth to worry about. If you did this, I would be worried every day what was happening to you."

"I control my powers well; you're the one that told me that. And if I just sit back and watch all this destruction go on and waste my powers, I'll feel like a total loser. If you could do it when you were my age, I can do it now. I'll take care of everything."

Kory sat down and put a slender hand to her forehead. "I cannot say no. This will be good for you, despite the dangers. I believe you deserve an offical team- or at least something I want to give you." She stood up and went into her bedroom, Stardust following. Kory opened the closet and strained to reach something on the top shelf, then turned around and handed it to Stardust. "It is a communicator, mine officially from the team. You will need it if you have a team of your own, and when someone wishes to call you for help."

Stardust admired the device in her hand. It was black and yellow, round, and had a white _T_ on the front of it. "Thank you," she breathed.

"It must need new batteries," Kory said, getting some out of her drawer and placing them in the communicator. It came to life and played a tune.

"How is anybody going to know who to call when they need help?" Stardust asked.

"The same way they did when I was a Teen Titan. There is a special number to call, and when someone does the communicator will vibrate or beep or something. You will know when it does." She reached back into the closet and pulled out another one. "This was your father's. I will show you how to use them." She put batteries in it too, then turned it on and pressed some buttons. Stardust's communicator vibrated in her hand, and she flipped it open. Her mother's face appeared on the small screen.

"That's awesome," Stardust said, hearing her voice on the communicator in Kory's hand as well as from her own mouth.

"You will be able to contact your teammates from anywhere on the planet," Kory said. "If you have a team."

"Thanks, Mom. This is really great."

"The puplic will know that there is once again someone to call for help when they see you on the television."

"I know it's raining and all, but I have to go do something," Stardust said, taking both communicators.

"One more thing before you go, Stardust."

"What's that?"

Kory smiled, her green eyes soft. "Do not fail to make me proud."

Stardust flew through the rain, not even attempting to keep dry. She was too excited and happy to care. When she came to the woods she had been at the other night, she landed on the ground and shielded her eyes from the rain.

"Rorek?" she whispered, thinking her search would be in vain, but only a few seconds later he dropped down from a tree branch and landed lightly in front of her.

"Stardust," he said pleasantly. "I didn't expect to see you here again."

She smiled. "I didn't expect to find you. What are you doing out in the rain, anyway?"

"I could ask you the same question," he said lightly. "But I don't have anywhere to go. You do, I'm sure?"

"Yeah, but I was looking for you." She felt like slapping herself. He wasn't supposed to know that!

"Well here I am, my lady. Did you need anything?"

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Go ahead, but we really should get out of the rain. Follow me."

She did, and he led her to a indention in the side of a large rock that was almost a cave, but it was not very tall, so they could only sit down in it. Stardust sat on her knees to keep control of her short skirt; she wasn't used to wearing things like this, but it was now part of her uniform.

"Now, you wanted to ask me something?"

Stardust nodded. "I'm sure you know about all the monsters and super villains that sort of invade the city, right?"

"Yes, and I've had quite a few run-ins with them. What about them?"

"See, my mom and dad and some of their friends used to be a team, the Teen Titans. They fought the crime and put a stop to the monsters and stuff. In short, they protected the city with their super powers. Now this place is overrun sometimes with problems, but now that the team is older, they have their own lives and their own things they're doing, just being normal I guess. But I've got nothing to do really, so I took it upon myself to do what I can to protect this place. You heard me say it to the camera crew."

"Yes."

"Well, I have powers, and so do you, and I was thinking that a team is better protection than just one person. Will you be the first addition to my team?"

She could tell he smiled, even under the muffler than covered half his face. "I would be honored to help you."

"Great!" she said, smiling broadly. Her new team was getting to a good start already. She didn't dare tell him, that not only did she want her first teammate, but she wanted his personal company as well. Though she did not know him very well, she had grown to like him a lot. He was so polite and easy to get along with, but a fierce fighter at the same time.

"I will try to be of the best assistance I can possibly be."

"You don't have to worry about that, you're fighting skills are awesome." Then she blushed and looked away, quickly changing the subject. "Maybe when the rain slows down a little we can take a walk or something."

"It looks like it already is."

Stardust looked outside and saw that he was right. Then she remembered the communicator. "Wait, I have to give you something. I guess it makes you an official member of the Teen Titans." She took one from her pocket and handed it to him. He seemed to be confused with it at first, but she showed him how to use it and he caught on quickly. By that time the rain had almost stopped, and she crawled out of the cave, Rorek following her.

"I'm not very familiar with the city, so you can pick where you would like to go," he said.

She shrugged. "Not anywhere in particular, I guess." They left the woods, talking, and walked down the wet sidewalk, the bridge they had just saved the day before to their right. Stardust squinted her eyes and strained to see in the darkness. Some sort of commotion was going on at the dock up ahead. She held up her hand to quiet Rorek, and as they got closer she recognized one of the people as a girl she went to school with, Sandra, and there were two men with her that she did not recognize. And the girl from school did not seem to know them, either. She was trying to get by them, but they were not letting her.

"What is it?" Rorek asked quietly.

"I know that girl," Stardust said. They came even closer, and to Stardust's surprise, Sandra raised both hands and shot a river of black energy at the men, sending them slamming back onto the dock. She flew over and landed beside the girl, who looked shaken.

"Star!" she said, hiding her glowing hands in her jacket. 'Star' was what all of the kids at school had called Stardust, since she never told them her real name and wanted to hide that she had powers. But now that she was a Titan, she didn't have to do that anymore.

"Sandra, are you okay?" she said, concerned. Sandra nodded and glanced at the men, who got up from the ground and fled. Rorek kept his distance.

"I'm okay." Sandra looked down at the dock and almost seemed ashamed.

Stardust brought her voice low. "You have powers too?"

"Yes. I didn't want anybody to know, but it was bound to happen eventually. I- I can't always control them the way I should."

"I have powers too."

"I know. I saw you on the news last night, and I was shocked."

"Then you don't have to be ashamed, Sandra." She waved Rorek over to them. "All three of us have powers, so there's nothing to worry about. Do your parents know?"

Sandra looked away. "I don't have any parents. I'm in a foster home, but they don't care about me."

"Oh. Well, do your foster parents know?"

She shook her head. "I haven't told anybody... until now. Please don't tell."

"I won't. But stay here a minute, okay? I'll be right back." She took Rorek by the arm and led him out of ear shot of Sandra. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Sandra has powers- a great addition to the team. I know I just started all of this, but if we're going to protect the city, we need all the help we can get."

"Agreed, but you heard the girl. She does not have control of her powers. What if she gets hurt?"

"She'll learn to control them. I'll teach her myself if I have to." She thought for a moment, then said, "We need a place to be our headquarters. It'll be better for the team if we all stay together, and you don't have anywhere to go, and Sandra could probably use to be away from her foster home. Stay here with her, I'll be right back." She flew away quickly.

When she reached the apartment, she rushed inside and looked for Kory. "Mom? Where are you?"

"I am right here," came the reply. Kor was brushing her long red hair in her bedroom.

"My team's already going great. I have one member besides me."

"Who?"

"Rorek. Remember, I told you about him."

Kory smiled a little. "Yes, I remember."

"And then there's this girl that I knew from school, Sandra, and I just found out she has powers and I want her to be a part of the team, but it'd be better if we could all stay together, so what I'm getting at is we need an HQ. What about Titans' Tower?"

Kory stopped brushing her hair. "I do not know, Stardust. The tower is not mine to give."

"Does someone still live in it?"

"Until recently. He just moved out."

"Could you find him and ask him about it? We'd fix it up and take good care of it, and besides, it's for a good cause, you know. We'll use it just like you did when you were young."

"He is an old friend of mine, but I do not know how to contact him."

Stardust raised her eyebrow. "How about the communicator? If he still has his, it'll be easy."

"I will try. And I will know by tomorrow."

"Thanks, Mom!" She rocketed out of the apartment, and the walls shook. When she reached Rorek and Sandra, she dropped down hard in front of them, panting.

"What did you find out?" Rorek asked.

Stardust explained about the tower and how the last team of Titans had used it as their home. "It would work perfectly, if we fixed the tower up. I think it needs a little repair."

Sandra looked away. "Your offer sounds great, but I don't know if I can use my powers to fight and help people. They're just too wacky."

"Training will fix that," Stardust said, touching the other girl's arm. "And you can get away from your foster home... that is, if you wanted to."

"Why wouldn't I want to? I don't even exist to them. I'm just a nothing there."

"It'll give Rorek a place to go, too," Stardust said.

"What about your mother?" Rorek asked.

"She's agreed to all this. She lived in the tower and fought crime when she was a teenager, so I guess she understands how I want to. I mean, I'll still see her and stuff; it's not like I'm moving away forever, though the tower _is _on the other side of town. But it'll be okay, we can handle it."

They moved into the tower late the next night. Kory said everything was affirmative, and Stardust got her belongings and brought them to the tower. Kory came with the three of them, just to see the place she lived in at one time in her life, and she helped them fix anything that was damaged over the next few days.

Sandra had left her foster home after getting her things, though the people she lived with did not know it until later, and she got her own communicator and had a uniform made. A pink leotard with matching boots that came to her knees, and she changed her name to Talon. When asked why, she said that if she was going to be fighting crime and the public was going to know her, a normal name like Sandra would not suit a superhero.

When everything was moved in, fixed, and in place, Stardust, Rorek, and Talon were officially moved in to Titans' Tower. They had picked their bedrooms days before, and Kory had the place remodeled to each of their tastes. Over those days, Stardust learned a few more things about her teammates. Rorek seemed to like things from the midieval time period, and he liked to read a lot. Talon had a thing for birds, and Stardust discovered that's where she got her name from. The night they were officially moved in, the team had a small celebration.

"It kinda feels weird to be somewhere besides a foster home," Talon said, taking a handful of popcorn.

"Yeah, it's weird for me to be away from my mom," Stardust added. "What's strange for you, Rorek?"

"To be away from England. I have not been here long."

Stardust opened a bottle of soda and sat on the leather couch in the middle of her new teammates. She knew that the three of them would have to learn to get along with each other, because arguing was inevitable, and they must know each other's strengths and weaknesses. Learning to work as a team would be hard, but it could be done- it _had_ to be done. And Stardust would make sure it was.

Rorek, who had his ankles crossed on the coffee table in front of him, suddenly stiffened and sat up straight. "What is that?"

Talon listened. "I don't hear anything."

"No, I feel it," Rorek said. He glanced down at the floor.

Stardust set her bottle down and stood up. The last time Rorek had said he felt something in the ground, he had been right. Then the tower gave a violent shake, and all three of them were on their feet.

"Is somebody attacking us?" Talon fretted.

Stardust looked out the window. "Apparently." It seemed as some sort of red force field had caged around the tower. There was another tremor.

Not even a day in the tower and the new Teen Titans were already under attack.


	5. Chapter 5

The tower gave another violent shake, and Stardust flew off the ground to keep her balance.

"Well, it's not gonna help anything standing around in here," she said. "Tians, go!" Then she thought, _I've always wanted to say that._

The three of them exited through the door on the roof, and discovered that the whole tower was caged in a dangerous-looking force field. Stardust threw a starbolt into it, but it just bounced off and exploded on the roof of the tower.

"What are we going to do?" Talon said.

"Find out what's causing this," Stardust replied. "Since it doesn't look like we're in the much immediate danger, I'd say we'd better check down at the rocks."

She took Talon by the arms and flew down to the bottom of the tower, and was surpised that Rorek was already there when she got there.

"I believe that is the source of our problem," he said, pointing his thin finger at the ground. Stardust saw what seemed to be three sort of machines that were powering the force field.

"If we destroy those, we'll probably deactivate the force field," Talon said.

"Good idea," Stardust said. She fired up her starbolts and blasted one of the machines, and it smashed to bits. Rorek destroyed the next one without any effort, and Talon took care of the last one. Then the force field disappeared.

"Well, that takes care of that, I guess," Stardust said.

"I believe it was far too easy," Rorek said, crossing his arms, his armor clinking together. "I have never had a so efortless fight."

"Good," a light female voice said. "Because it's not over." She was standing on the top of the tower, her hands on her hips. Her red hair blew in the sharp wind.

"Who the heck are you?" Stardust snapped, flying up to face her.

"I'm Eva," she said, tossing her hair behind her shoulder. She narrowed her eyes. "And you're the Titans, right?"

Talon emerged from the door behind them. "What's it to ya?"

Eva ignored the question and looked at Rorek, who had somehow appeared on the top of the tower himself. "I've never seen you before, hottie, but you're pretty cute. WE should have a date sometime."

Rorek narrowed his eyes and was about to respond, but Stardust did first. "Look, girl, I don't know who you are or why you've attacked us, but-"

"Oh, I haven't attacked you," Eva interrupted. She grinned. "Yet." Then she let out a battle cry and hurled a green sphere into the top of the tower. Out of the hole quickly grew large vines, and when she moved her hands they seemed to obey her every command. The first one she hurled at Stardust, who dodged, and it took off a chunk of the roof. Stardust hurled starbolts at her, but she gracefully moved out of the way.

"Good grief," Talon mumbled, and aimed her powers in the direction of Eva, but she missed by a mile.

"Can't you do better than that?" Eva yelled, and smashed Talon off the side of the tower with a strong vine. Stardust flew down quickly and caught her before she hit the ground.

"Thanks," Talon said, rubbing her head on the way back up. "Who is that girl?"

"I've never seen her before, but we've got to get rid of her." She sat Talon down on the roof and saw that Eva and Rorek were engaged in hand-to-hand combat, but when she got closer she realized that Eva was the only one making violent advances, and Rorek was just blocking.

Stardust blasted Eva away with her eyebeams, then looked at Rorek. "What are you doing? Why don't you defend yourself?"

"I would rather not hit a lady," he said.

"She's not a lady," Stardust said, then flew and punched

Eva hard, but she didn't use her full super strength- she didn't want to kill the girl. Eva flew off the edge of the tower, and they heard a splash in the water below. Stardust took Talon's wrist and flew down to the rocks, and Rorek just jumped off the tower, but he amazingly landed lightly and Stardust was surprised that he wasn't injured.

"Where is she?" Talon said, scanning the water with her eyes.

The ground rumbled beneath them, then vines burst from the rocks and smashed them all into the water. Stardust surfaced and took a deep breath, but something grabbed her ankle and yanked her down below. She opened her eyes and struggled, but it was strong and kept pulling her down. She resisted, and suddenly the vine was cut and someone grabbed her by the arm, and she soon surfaced again.

"Let me be of better assistance, my lady," Rorek said. He shoved his wet long hair out of his face and smiled. Despite the situation, Stardust had to smile too. Rorek took her by the waste and hoisted her out of the water and onto the rocks. Then she shielded her face quickly when Talon slammed down beside her, a shower of rocks going everywhere.

"Talon, are you okay?" she said, helping her up.

"Thanks to my uniform, I've been spared a lot of pain," she said, holding her arm.

"Titans!" Eva yelled, jumping down beside them. "I never thought it would be this easy."

Stardust's eyes charged up and glowed purple. "It won't be!" She exploded from the ground and whirled around into a spin kick, sending Eva across the water and through the wall of building on the street.

She grabbed her teammates and was across the water practically before anyone could blink. She dropped to the ground, her eyes still glowing and starbolts dangerously charged. "If you want to fight, Eva, get out here and fight! We're ready for you, now!"

The red-head emerged from the hole in the building, looking furious. Her eyes were glowing a dark green, and she charged from the building, knocking her hard to the ground. Rorek threw her off and narrowed his blue eyes.

"Let's just end this," he said, and hurled a white ball of electricity at her. It hit her square in the stomach, and she cried out and hit the ground.

When she recovered a little, she gasped, "I guess that's a no to our date?"

He closed his eyes and lifted his hands upwards, and the ground under her exploded in his power. She land hard a few yards away and shakily got to her feet.

"I will be back," she said. "Don't think I won't." Then she was wrapped in vines and disppeared.


	6. Chapter 6

"What kind of villain rip-off is this?" Talon complained on the walk back to the tower. "She wants to come and attack us, then leaves right in the middle of the fight? And her "I'll be back" speech was just a little too stupid for me. I mean, doesn't every villain say that?"

"Yeah, but they usually keep their word," Stardust said dully. She tighted her hand into a fist. "If Eva wants to come back and face us, let her go ahead; it'll be her funeral. We can take her."

Talon shrugged slowly. "I dunno, Stardust, I'm not that good of a fighter. You said you'd train me, but we really haven't had time."

"They are attacking us when they think we are most vulnerable," Rorek said.

Stardust closed her eyes and sighed. "We need to work better as I team. Uh, don't get me wrong, you all did a great job. I just mean that each of us need to know how to work correctly with the other two."

"You're right," Talon said. "Looks like we've got a lot of training to do though."

"And a lot to learn about each other too," Stardust said.

The three of them were silent for a few minutes until Rorek stopped walking and turned to Talon. "Could I talk to Stardust for moment?"

Talon looked at him, then a huge grin exploded on her face. She glanced at Stardust, her eyebrows going up. "Sure, I'll go away," she said. Then she punched Stardust's shoulder and continued on to the tower.

"Huh?" Stardust said, holding her arm and watching Talon go.

Rorek didn't speak until Talon was out of ear-shot. He cleared his throat, then spread his arms out a little, palms up. "I want to talk to you."

"Yeah, go ahead. What is it?"

Rorek dropped his arms, then pressed his knuckles to his mouth and said, "About learning to work together. You're right."

"We have a lot of training to go through, I know-"

"That's not exactly what I meant," he said, his voice low and his accent thick. "I meant just me and you. There are things we need to learn."

Stardust raised an eyebrow. "Like, what _do _you mean?"

He tilted his head up and looked at the full moon. "I want you to trust me, Stardust."

"But I do trust you. I don't have any reason not to."

"Perhaps we should go somewhere and talk."

"Sure... like where?"

"I don't know. Like I said, you know this city better than I do."

"All right. Come with me."

They walked in silence, and though she didn't want to, Stardust couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. There was nothing not to trust about him that she knew of, and she was more than likely stronger than him by far, but she couldn't help it. Men were stupid. There was no getting around that. But until he proved himself completely trustworthy, she would have her guard up on the inside.

"This is good," she said, motioning to the surroundings. They were just on the edge of the woods, and there were no other people in sight, the moon was full and bright, and it was just the two of them.

"You said you wanted to get to know each other better, correct?"

"Yeah." _Come on, Rorek, what are you getting at? _she thought, suspiciously.

He sighed and looked away. "I told you I am from London. That is true. But there is something else."

"What is it?"

"It is hard to explain... and I am not even sure myself how it happened."

"Just tell me. Whatever it is, go ahead."

"I am not from this time, Stardust."

She blinked hard. "What do you mean, not from this time?"

"I am not supposed to be here. My life was intended to be over one thousand years ago."

"Woah! Well how in the world-"

"I do not know. It's a long story, but somehow I ended up here."

"I said you looked like you were from mideavil times... and I was right. How long have you been here?"

He shrugged. "Not much longer than before I met you. As you can imagine, when I ended up here I was quite dazed and confused. I still am. There are so many confusing things here; the technology, for one. I was quite stunned. "

"Wow. That's really amazing."

"Yes. In my time, super powers are quite rare. A lot of people thought I was a wizard, but I am not. I was the oldest of seven siblings, and a knight- a warrior as soon as I was old enough to do battle properly. I fought so well that I became quite popular. Stories were even written about me, though nothing that was written was true."

"So, how _did_ you get here? You don't know?"

He shook his head. "I am still confused by it myself."

She looked at the ground. "I guess that means you'll be looking for a way to get back to your time."

He tilted his head and looked at her, as if he wanted to say something, but he was holding back. Suddenly, a look of irritation overtook his expression, and he whirled around, launching a ball of crackling white energy behind him. It apparently hit its mark, since they heard a feminine gasp, followed by a crash and a loud thud.

"Eva?" Stardust said.

Rorek nodded once.

"Well she's back a little early," Stardust early, flexing her hands and firing up her starbolts.

"I am not in the mood to fight with her," Rorek growled savagely. Stardust had never heard him so irritated.

"Titans," Eva's earsplitting voice said. "I don't want all of you this time."

"Miss us or something?" Stardust said, then she let out a yell and hurled her starbolts hard in Eva's direction, putting holes in the pavement.

Eva dodged gracefully, then lifted her hand. A few trees uprooted straight from the ground and come flying at Stardust. She busted one to pieces with a starbolt and dodged the other, but the last one hit her hard in the stomach, smashing her to the ground. She dug her fingers into the bark and threw it to the side, only to be grabbed violently by vines that had emerged from the ground.

"All right then," Eva said, grinning evilly. She turned to face Rorek. "It's _you_ I came for, cutie." She waved a fist. "Now that I at least know your past, I can use for better purposes."

"You do know it is very impolite to eavesdrop, don't you?" Rorek said coldly.

"Oh, sure. I just don't care. Now why don't you just come along without a fight, okay?"

"No, Eva. You came looking for a fight, and it is quite a fight you are going to get." He slammed his fist into the ground, opening a large crater under him, but his power erupted under Eva's feet instead of where his fist came in contact with the ground. She yelped and was smashed to the ground, but she somersaulted to her feet and glared at him.

"Why do you have to make this difficult, Rorek?" Her hands charged with dark green power, but a purple starbolt smashed her hands and rocked the ground under her.

"This has got to end," Stardust said slowly, her eyes glowing dangerously.

Eva, looking quite ticked, screamed in rage and took control of her vines, throwing them wildly at the Titans, but they dodged, landing lightly beside each other.

"She doesn't want to kill us, she wants to capture us," Stardust said, throwing starbolts rapidly.

"Let her try," Rorek said. "She has to learn some way, does she not?"

"I would guess that she's working for somebody, but who?" Stardust stopped throwing starbolts and squinted to see through the cloud of dirt and dust she had stirred up. A vine slammed into her and smashed her into a tree.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself," Eva said, her hand extended. "The answer is none of your business."

Stardust struggled and snapped the vine that was squeezing her. _How long is this fight going to go on? _she thought. _The Titans are supposed to whip the villains quick- this is our first official fight and wer still haven't defeated her._

Rorek jumped forward punched Eva hard. She smashed to the ground and spit blood out of her mouth.

"I thought you didn't hit girls, Rorek?" she said, gasping.

"I'll refrain from that this time," he said, throwing his powers into a nearby rock, and once gaining control, hurled it at Eva, and she barely got out of the way just in time.

_Wow,_ Stardust thought. _He could have killed her. _But she pushed the thought aside and shot forward, only to be whacked hard with a vine. She sailed backwards uncontrolably and smashed into Rorek, causing them both to hit the tree behind them.

"Sorry," she said after she got to her feet, embarrassed.

"It's all right," he said. He spoke pleasantly to her, but she could see the fury in his eyes as he set his gaze on Eva. He tossed his bangs back quickly and said to Stardust, "We have to take her down. If we do not, we could suffer a lot of damage. She's more powerful than I thought."

"Right," she said. "How are we going to do that?"

He said quickly, "In my time people die in battle all the time. I do not wish to kill her, but we have to do what we must."

"But it's not the way in this time; and it's not the way of the Titans." She jumped to the side to avoid a flying green sphere.

"I will spare her," he said, then he spread his hands and a white shield appeared in front of them, blocking Eva's powers. The he let the shield die down and he threw a wave of his power at Eva, hitting her squarely. Just as she was getting back up, he came from down low and did an impressing flying kick into her face, but grabbed her and punched her up before she even hit the ground. As she was in the air, Stardust flipped into the battle and slammed both feet onto Eva's head, knocking her so hard into the ground it left a deep crater, then she hurled multiple starbolts into the hole.

Rorek held up a hand to signal her to stop. When the smoke cleared away, they both looked down into the crater and were surprised to see no one there.

"How does she do that?" Stardust said, clenching her fists. "Just disappear right in the middle of a fight?"

"She disappears when she knows she is beaten," Rorek said, brushing the dirt off his armor. When the fight was over, he looked nice and peaceful again.

Stardust cleared her throat. "You fight really well."

"Thank you. So do you."

She smiled and stared at him. He was like two different people when he was fighting and when he was not. He was such a polite gentleman, but when it came to battle he was a hurricane of power, agility, and skill. Just by looking at him at first, it was hard to even believe he was able to fight so well.

"Where did you learn to fight?" she asked, then felt stupid. He had already told her he was a warrior in his time.

"My father somewhat, but especially other knights." He glanced again at the moon and flexed his thin hands. "If I had my sword I could be of better assistance to the team."

"You were trained with a sword? That's really cool."

"Yes, and lots of other weaponry." The way he said it was not as if he was bragging- he was far too humble and polite for that.

"My mother taught me how to fight and use my powers," Stardust said. "You see, she's Tamaranian; Tamaran is another planet on the far side of the galaxy."

"I see."

"My father is just human, but I luckily inherited all of my mother's alien powers. They're controlled by my emotions... so I have to be careful what I feel and when I feel it." For some reason she felt embarrassed when she said that, and felt herself blush. Was it because she liked him? Maybe so, but they hardly knew each other. But though she wouldn't admit it, she could not deny the crush she had on him.

"Perhaps I could meet your father sometime?" he suggested politely.

"I don't know where he is. My parents split a little while back."

"I see. My apologies."

"No, no, it's okay, you didn't know," she said, waving her hand. She turned her face away from the sharp wind that hit them and grabbed her hair so it would stay in place.

"You have the most beautiful hair," Rorek said, reaching out and touching it with two of his fingers.

Stardust blushed hard and let it go. "That's what I was gonna say about you. Have you ever cut it?"

He let his hand fall away from her hair and cracked his knuckles. "A couple of times I think, when I was younger. But not anytime soon."

"Well, I think it's a lot nicer than mine," she said, trying to turn the attention away from herself. But he just talked about her again.

"How come? I have never seen a girl with such pretty hair as yours."

"Thanks," she said, her smile now uncontrolable.

Rorek stretched his fingers again. "Maybe we should get back to the tower. I do not really think Talon should be left alone. Especially with Eva..."

"I know what you mean. She's a nice girl with cool powers, but she doesn't know how to control them, and she doesn't know how strong they really are. I can feel it. She can pack a harder punch than she thinks she can."

They walked side-by-side and Rorek said, "I agree. Are you going to train her?"

"Yeah, as much as I can, but I don't really know how her powers work. Mine are emotion-driven. I'm not sure about hers."

"I am sure you will find out eventually," he said.

"I mean, Talon's still a part of the team, but until then, I think you and me are on our own."

He shrugged. "She'll get better, with practice. I can tell she is eager to learn." He stopped and took the muffler from his face. Why, Stardust didn't know, but now she didn't really care. It was the first time she had seen his full face, and she definintely liked what she saw. His features were thin but masculine at the same time. Even his lips were thin.

She stared at him, almost in a daze. He looked back, a tiny smile on his face, and Stardust felt her heart speed up. He leaned forward slowly, but slightly. Now it felt like her heart stopped. _Maybe he's not trying to kiss me... but who cares, kiss him first! _a voice in her head screamed at her. She leaned forward too, and he tilted her chin up with his finger. Then he leaned forward rapidly, though still slowly, and Stardust touched his shoulder with her hand, slightly tilting her head to the side.

Something in the woods moved suddenly. Stardust saw it out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to look. Obviously the shape of a person, and they moved again.

_Curse you! _Stardust thought at the person. She whirled around, clearly annoyed, her eyes glowing with rage. Rorek pulled his muffler back on and set his sights on the figure in the trees.

Stardust sighed heavily. _Here we go again, _she thought.


	7. Chapter 7

With the wind literally howling all around her, Stardust strained her eyes in the darkness in an attempt to identify her suspected stalker. When she saw no movement, she wondered if her eyes had been playing tricks on her, only because she hadn't wanted the moment ruined, and there was no one there at all. But Rorek had seen it too, which made her sure that someone was indeed there. Now she needed to somehow find out if they were friend or foe.

Quickly clearing her throat, she turned back to face Rorek. "You saw it too?" she mouthed silently, and he nodded.

Stardust wasn't sure if she should greet the person or ensue a fight. Feeling as if she had fought enough lately, she decided to be friendly unless she had to be violent. She took a step forward, but froze when she saw something move again, this time more slowly. She glanced quickly at Rorek and saw him stiffen defensively. Well, if whoever this person was couldn't just come out and talk to them, they were more than likely foe and not friend. She raised her hand and ignited a starbolt for light, but the person must have seen it as an attack, because almost before she could blink they were on the top of a one-story building.

"This is stupid," Stardust mumbled, and let her starbolt die down, but feeling threatened made her automatically defensive, and she didn't want to put up with this spying person all night- or even just for a little while, at least. "We should at least see what it is they want, and if it's a fight, they'll sure get one."

"Agreed," Rorek said.

Stardust ascended from the ground and flew over to the building, watching closely for any signs of movement. In one leap, Rorek was on the building beside her, and seemed sure that someone was here.

Though Stardust was not so sure, she found herself surprisingly trusting Rorek more than she had expected to. But it appeared he was right, anyway. On the building in front of them there seemed to appear a person- a man who obviously didn't fail to work out every day. He stood with either importance or arrogance, but Stardust wasn't really paying attention to that. She squinted and saw the man's dark hair and black and blue clothes. She sucked in a sharp breath.

"Nightwing," she hissed through her teeth. She had disliked him so much all her life, never referring to him as 'dad' or anything but the latest name he had given himself. She also hadn't seen him in a long time, so his appearance was quite surprising.

Hearing the alarmed tone of her voice, Rorek's thin hand charged up his power of electricity. But all in a split second, Nightwing moved quickly and there was a brief but fast movement in the air, something small collided with Rorek's chest, and he was thrown back to the next building, frozen to the wall shoulders-down in a thick layer of ice.

Stardust turned to face Nightwing and let out a fierce yell, throwing starbolts as accurately as she could, but he was fast and dodged all of them. Behind her, Rorek burst the ice with his powers and was by her side again in a flash, though he made no attack yet.

Stardust had never left the air; she found it easier to hit her mark that way. But it seemed no matter how many spheres of energy she hurled at Nightwing, he still managed to dodge or block them somehow, which only made her more angry and produced more starbolts. Her arms were starting to hurt from the throwing motions, but she was determined to hit her target. And she did; a starbolt landing hard square in Nightwing's chest, finally smashing him hard off the roof of the building.

She and Rorek briefly shared a look, then they were off the roof in pursuit of their new opponent, whom they discovered had not even bothered to rise from the pavemen yet. Stardust landed hard on the ground, then aimed her glowing fist as Nightwing's face threateningly.

"Why are you here?" she barked savagely, knowing he could get up if he wanted to, but he made no attempt.

"You know him?" Rorek said.

"Yes," Stardust said, though not taking her eyes off Nightwing. "Now answer the question! I thought you left for Gotham."

Finally, he spoke. "I did. But that doesn't mean I can't come back to one of my home towns to check up on things."

"Jump City is not your home town; not anymore," she hissed. She kept her hand and starbolt dangerously close to his face, and when he moved to get up, she let the purple sphere fly, but he dodged and it blasted a hole in the pavement.

"Stop attacking me," Nightwing said, brushing the dirt off his uniform. Unlike the last time Stardust saw him, his hair was short, though still dark and thick like it had always been. He looked down at her, expressionless as usual, and she couldn't tell what he was thinking, which bothered her.

Rorek was picking up on Stardust's silent rage, and he seemed very wary of the man in front of them. "And how do you know Stardust?" he said, a hint of a challenge in the accent of his voice. Nightwing leveled his eyes at Rorek but was silent.

"It doesn't matter, Rorek," Stardust said, turning her back and walking away. "Come on, let's go." She looked back over her shoulder and glared at Nightwing. "And you leave me alone."

Nightwing brushed past Rorek and reached for Stardust's arm, only to get the literal shock of his life, revealing that Rorek's powers had not been idle. He let out a deep yell and dropped to the ground, Rorek standing over him ominously.

"I think you should honor the lady's request," he said flatly.

Nightwing regained his balance and whipped out a bo staff before anyone could blink. He brought it down to meet Rorek, only to come in contact with a white shield. Rorek blocked a few more swings with the armor on his arms, then caught the last one in his hands, flipped over backwards, and kicked Nightwing into the far wall. He looked at the staff in his hands, then threw it to the side to show its worthlessness.

Stardust, staring with an open mouth, was quite surprised. She knew Nightwing was one of the best with that staff, but Rorek had took his weapon and had him down with a small effort. If the stories of Nightwing's youth were true, he used to rock the city with his fighting style. She didn't see any reason why that talent would die now. He was only in his early thirties, so age was probably not the problem. There was obviously something about Rorek that was different in the way he fought. With a smile, she realized that there was something different about Rorek period.

Nightwing emerged from the hole in the wall, not looking injured in the least, but he held up a hand at Rorek. "I don't want to fight with you, kid. I just want to talk to Stardust. So I suggest you back off."

Rorek took a breath to argue, but Stardust touched his armor, which was frosty from the freeze disc. "No, let him talk. It should be interesting what he has to say."

Nightwing nodded once, but looked at Rorek as if he clearly wanted him to go away, but Stardust crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "He can hear anything you have to say. So go ahead."

Nightwing massaged the back of his neck and sighed. "I want to know where your mother is."

Stardust's face immediately hardened. "It's none of your business! Why don't you keep out of her life, and mine too? She doesn't want to see you or hear from you or-"

A feminine gasp interrupted her sentence. She turned and was surprised to see her mother standing in the middle of the road behind them. "Nightwing?" she said.

"Starfire."

She walked over to him and they looked at each other for a minute, then suddenly hugged. Stardust felt like blasting Nightwing back through the wall of the building, but when she really thought about it she didn't know why she hated him so much. But she didn't care. She just hated him, and hated the fact that he and her mother had come in contact again.

Nightwing took Kory's hands in his and smiled slightly. "I thought you went back to Tamaran."

She shook her head. "I could not. Not when Stardust was young. I was going to wait until later, but now I have no wish to go."

Stardust walked away, knowing she had to before she hurt someone. Rorek followed her silently, but she didn't tell him to leave; she didn't want him to. He was about the only person she wanted to see right now. They walked in silence until they got inside the tower, and she stopped in the hallway and leaned against the wall, her face in her hands. All was silent, but she suddenly felt Rorek's hand on her shoulder. There was no mistaking those hands. Manly and strong but thin and nimble, like the rest of him.

"Oh, Rorek, why do I feel so stupid? And there's no reason to hide it from you, so I'll just tell you that Nightwing is my father. I'm sure you already figured that."

"I did," he said gently.

She took her hands from her face and saw how caring he looked, and it made her heart melt. She felt kind of strange for liking him so much when they didn't really know each other that well, but he was easily likeable. "I honestly don't know why I hate him. He never did anything to me personally, and it's so hard to figure out. All that happened was my parents split up, and I don't think it was really anyone's fault in particular."

"You do not want them back together?"

"No. But I don't know why. I guess I've just lived so long without him, that I feel that neither of us need him anymore. It makes me almost angry that my mom is still interested in him."

"How do you know she is?"

She shrugged. "I dunno, I can just tell. My mom just wants to be a normal person, but his job, if you could call it that, is a lot like ours, only he goes solo and doesn't really settle down anywhere. And I know that I'm not even living at home right now, but it still bothers me."

"I don't think it would be a good idea to try to stop it. If your mother wanted to get into a relationship with him again, perhaps you could get used to it. You never know, you may even accept and enjoy it."

She was going to reply, but when she looked up at his face she was struck speechless. He looked so concerned, caring, and almost loving that she couldn't speak even if she tried to force herself. In short, he looked really hot. He seemed like a knight in shining armor to her- literally. And she suspected that he probably was, in his time. His politeness and slight femininity clashed with his ability to fight and strike fear in the hearts of enemies. His look was if he had been ripped right off an ancient battle field and thrown into the twenty-first century.

"Stardust, Rorek," Talon's voice said, interrupting their gaze and causing Rorek's hand to fall off Stardust's shoulder. "You're back early."

Stardust regained her ability to speak and said, "Yeah, we had a run-in with... somebody I know. But it doesn't matter."

Talon glanced at Rorek. "Why is your armor frozen?"

He ran a finger through the frost, which was starting to melt, and said, "Like Stardust said, we ran into someone."

"It's no big deal," Stardust said, massaging her arm.

Talon shrugged. "All right, if you say so. But just in case you're wondering, there was nothing happening around here. No villains or anything."

"Good," Stardust said absentmindedly. She walked around the other girl and went into the kitchen. When she opened the refridgerator door, the handle snapped off as a result of her tense strength that she hadn't meant to use. "Oops," she said quietly. She was not paying attention to what she was doing, finding herself thinking more of Rorek that anything else. Knowing she had to get her brain back on track, she tried to think of something else so she could get with it. Not knowing how to fix it, she threw the handle aside and pried to door open with her fingers. Grabbing and draining a soda, she suddenly heard a young male voice she did not recognize.

"Got something on your mind?"

"Aah!" she yelped, throwing a starbolt before she could control herself.

"Woah, watch it! I'm not a threat, okay?"

The voice finally had a face, as it seemed the boy materialized out of thin air. He had black hair that was quite the mess, his face was pale, minus his eyes that were painted black, and he wore a long trench coat that she could not see under.

"How did you get in here?" she demanded, ready to tear him to pieces if she had to, but he held up his hands in a sign of peace.

"Hey, it's okay."

She let her eyes glow purple to intimidate him, and it was obviously working. "Answer the question."

"I, uh, came through the wall. It's part of my powers."

"And what's your name?"

"Angel."

"Hah. Somebody got a little mixed up there; you look like a villain."

He shrugged. "Well, I'm not one. I'm a _friend_."

"Where do you come from?"

He grinned. "All over the place. I'm a deminsion-hopper."

"Good for you. Now get out before-"

"All right, I'm going. I just wanted to see the Titans."

"You could have knocked."

"Sorry. I'm going now."

She crushed the aluminum can beyond recognition and threw it at his feet. "Good."

"Where's the door?" he said.

"Hah! You came through the wall; you can go out the same way."

"That's fair. But I just want to prove to you and your team that I not a threat-"

"You can start proving that you want to live by leaving! Now get OUT!"

He took a few steps backwards and went through the wall without breaking stride. Rorek came into the room and said, "Are you okay?"

"Yes." She explained the 'visitor' they had and later asked Talon how they could fix it. She had proved to be the smartest one in technology, and she was a good thinker and problem solver.

"I'll find some way to fix it," she said.

Stardust walked down the hall, feeling depressed but not knowing why. Behind her she heard Rorek come out of his room, and she didn't know if she should talk to him or run away. She decided to talk.

"That boy had better not come back here, if he knows what's good for him," she said, though not turning to face him. "And he said his name was _Angel_, but I'd like to know why. He was creepy."

"I did not see him."

"Oh. Yeah, that's right."

Both of them were silent, but somehow Rorek had gotten closer to her when she hadn't noticed. His fingers touched her arm and she finally turned around. She was surprised to see all of his face, as he had removed the muffler. But when she looked down she realized he had changed clothes completely, and was wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

"Hey," she said. "You look really good like that." She could see more of his shape without the armor, and she wondered where he had gotten the clothes, but she didn't care.

"Thank you," he said. "I thought I could blend in to this century better this way."

"You do," she said, blushing and looking way.

He bowed at her slightly in a sign of thanks, then shook his bangs out of his eyes. "Do you think I should cut my hair?"

"No!" She put a hand to her mouth. "I mean, not really. It's nice how it is."

She was so glad she could see him smile now, glad that there was nothing there to hide his face. She could stare at him forever- or at least until he got creeped out.

He smiled again, and suddenly but gently he took her by the shoulders and kissed her. Her heart jumped, and then she knew the meaning of walking on air. She was flying.

Mentally.


	8. Chapter 8

Here's some bios on the characters so far.

Name: Stardust

Age: 15

Nationality: Tamaranian

Hobbies: Physical education/gymnastics

Height: 5'8''

Weight: 110 lbs

Eye color: Dark blue

Hair color: Black

Powers: Starbolts, eye beams, strength, flight

Name: Rorek

Age: 17

Nationality: British

Hobbies: Art/reading

Height: 6'1''

Weight: 135 lbs

Eye color: Light blue

Hair color: White

Powers: Exact power unknown

Name: Sandra/Talon

Age: 14

Nationality: American

Hobbies: Computers/any technology

Height: 5'3''

Weight: 110 lbs

Eye color: Green

Hair color: Black

Powers: Powers not completely controlled/exact unknown

Name: Angel

Age: Unknown

Nationality: Unknown

Hobbies: Dimension hopping

Height: 5'10''

Weight: 120 lbs

Eye color: Purple

Hair color: Black

Powers: Electricity/a form of telekinesis

Angel shielded his dark eyes from the rain, doing his best to keep dry, but in vain. His trenchcoat was already soaked completely through, and quite a burden to carry, but it kept him somewhat warm at the very least. Between two walls in a deserted alley was the best place he had been able to find. But being a dimension-hopper he had no official home to call his own, and he moved around quite a bit, so he did not even try to settle down in any place. He had moved through so many different places that he learned many different froms of martial arts, so he was very experienced in the way he fought. If anyone knew who he was, but usually they did not, they wisely stayed out of his way. His super powers had been advanced recently because of his wide way of learning. Though his physical appearance did not look like much, since he was merely tall and skinny, he was to be respected with great reason.

But it was not that he hopped dimensions only for the fun of it. The enjoyment, learning, and excitement just came with the package. There was some reason that no one knew, some reason he went to so many different places, a reason that he never spoke of until one day when his mission was going to be complete. No, he did not work for or with anyone; he always traveled solo. Nobody knew where he was from or where he was going, and he had no friends since he never stayed in one place for long.

Now he only concentrated on sleep, hoping and wishing that he could at the very least rest this morning. He preferred to travel at night, so when the sun (or suns, depending on which dimension he was in) was up it was his time for sleeping. But now, since this sun had just barely come up and he had very recently began to try to sleep, he felt like it was very far from him now. He thought briefly of the girl he had met- a Titan, or something like that? He wasn't sure; not in this new place. He imagined that she was probably much more friendly when she didn't feel threatened. Angel had not meant to make her feel that way, but now that he thought back he told himself that if he really wanted to meet those kids, he could have just knocked on the door.

Feeling that sleep was far from him, he stood up, hauling his jacket onto his shoulders, and stretched his small body. The only people he had seen in a long time with super powers was the Titans. And it was not that he wanted friends. He wanted help.

Stardust sat on the edge of the roof of Titans' Tower and breathed in the smell of the new morning. She hadn't been able to sleep anymore, so she had decided to come outside and think while she was still alone. She knew Rorek was awake (he always got up early), and almost wished he was out on the roof with her. Just the thought of him period made her heart flutter. Yes, he had kissed her the night before. Yes, she had not been able to sleep because of it. Now she smiled and pulled her knees to her chest. They hadn't spoken to each other since, but she had a feeling they would.

In perfect timing, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She smiled again, knowing that she could not mistake that hand for anyone's but Rorek's. She turned her head and confirmed that she was right. She couldn't tell if he was smiling or not, since he had dressed in his armor and muffler this morning.

"Hello," he said, his accent thick and his voice friendly.

"Hi," she said, trying to control her voice and smile, but failing badly.

Rorek glanced up at the rising sun and sighed. "Is not the sunrise beautiful this morning?"

Stardust nodded. "It is. Want to sit down?"

She guessed that he had been waiting on that invitation, as he sat down quickly and fairly close beside her. "How long have you been up?" she said, attempting to make conversation without stumbling all over her words again.

"I don't know," he replied. "I have not figured out how to work the clock yet."

They both laughed. Stardust wished she could make him laugh by himself, just so she could hear his voice again. She sighed happily, realizing that she had been doing that a lot around Rorek, especially lately. He glanced at her, and this time she knew he was smiling because of his eyes. She could stare into those light blue eyes for hours at a time. She wished he felt the same way about her. But she didn't really know, and that made her badly want to find out. She would feel stupid just flat out asking, especially when they still needed to get to know each other better even still.

"In England," Rorek said, "a sunrise as beautiful as this is hard to find. But when they are, my mother paints them. We used to paint together sometimes, before I went to battle."

"I didn't know you liked art."

He nodded. "I used to practice at it a lot. Perhaps I could paint something for you sometime."

"I'd really like that. Actually, I'd _love_ it. What can you paint?"

"Almost anything, I suppose." He put a hand to his mouth and coughed. "Not that I am bragging on it, but-"

"Of course not, I know what you mean." Oh, he was so polite and down-to-earth.

Rorek's eyes suddenly darted to the left. Stardust knew he had seen something, his senses were never wrong, and she turned to see what had alarmed him. She saw nothing at first, then jumped a little when someone landed with nothing short of perfect agility on the roof beside them. It was the boy who had taken it upon himself to come into the tower the night before, Angel. Stardust didn't know if she should attack or threaten him, but he held up his hand as she and Rorek jumped up defensively.

"You're not gonna attack me, are you?" he said.

"That depends," Stardust replied warily. "What do you want now?"

"Nothing! Look, I'm not trying to hurt you, I'm trying to befriend you!"

"Why?" Stardust barked.

Angel glanced at Rorek, who offered no words, then looked back at Stardust. "Why not? Do you have a thing against friendship or something?"

"No," Stardust said. "But I do have a thing for trust. We don't know you, or anything about you for that matter. So if you just want to be our friend and have nothing to hide, I guess you won't mind if we search you."

"Search me? I already told you-"

"I don't care what you told us. If you're not a threat to us, you'll let us see what you've got on you. Otherwise, you'll just have to leave."

Angel sighed heavily and spread his arms slightly from his body. "Fine, go ahead."

Rorek took over the job and went through all the pockets of Angel's trenchcoat and pants. With Angel's arms now spread, Stardust could see inside his jacket and saw that he was wearing knee high punk-rocker boots that buckled the whole way up, black leather pants and shirt, and he had some sort of neckplate that was similar to her own, but not quite. She noticed a purple jewel embedded into the metal and wondered what its purpose was.

"I believe he's unarmed," Rorek said finally.

Angel dropped his arms and scowled. "Doesn't matter if I was, I still have powers you know, just like you do."

"All right," Stardust said. "You said you wanted to be our friend. Tell me your name again?"

"Angel. What's yours?"

"I'm Stardust, and this is Rorek. And there's Talon, but she's inside."

"Okay, I guess I can meet her later then."

Just as he finished his sentence, the door that led to the roof swung open and Talon came outside. She looked Angel up and down with a small smile on her face, then looked at Stardust. "Who's this?"

"I'm Angel," he said, reaching out to shake her hand. Talon raised her eyebrows at Stardust and shook his hand slowly. Stardust glanced at Rorek and rolled her eyes, smiling.

"Just- just call me Talon," she stuttered.

Stardust leaned over to Rorek. "I think she likes him."

He smiled and nodded.

Stardust communicator beeped and vibrated. She jumped a little and opened it up. There was a red dot blinking, indicating that there was trouble on the other side of town. "We need to go." She looked at Angel. "You can come with us, I guess."

"I'll be a good help, really," he said. But Stardust was not so sure. She told him he would have to prove it.

Rorek took Stardust by the arm. "I have a strong feeling that Eva is back to attempt her takeover, or whatever she's been trying to do."

"You're probably right," Stardust said. She smiled. "You always are."

"Hey, we need to get going!" Talon barked. She pointed across the water where a large green beam of light was pointing straight into the dark clouds. Stardust looked sternly at Angel, then flew across the water with her team not far behind.

When ground shook beneath them, Stardust had a feeling that the problem was not just Eva herself. It sounded more like she had company, and now she was glad that Angel was going to be helping them.

If he had the intentions he said he did.


	9. Chapter 9

The green beam that was pointing vertically to the sky suddenly seemed to lose its power and die down. The Titans made their way to the source rapidly, and Stardust was not surprised to see Eva in the darkness, holding something light-colored in her hand.

"Why, hello, Titans!" she exclaimed sarcastically. She held up a cloth bag. "Do you know what this is?"

"Well, Eva," Stardust said, "it looks like a bag."

Eva growled. "I mean what's _in _the bag!"

Talon sighed. "Let me guess. It's a load of money that you stole from a bank?"

"Correct. And I'm _sure_ you want it back, don't you?"

Rorek glanced at Stardust, then gave Eva mockingly pitiful expression. "It is very nice of you to offer it to us, Eva, but, well... we're not that stupid."

Stardust almost laughed out loud. It wasn't every day she heard Rorek talk like that.

"All right then," Eva said. "Since you want to be smart about it, I'll just leave now." She turned to go, but a vice-like hand gripped her arm, and when she turned to see who had captured her, Angel's fist met her face unmercifully, and she went flying for a few yards.

"This isn't a time to mess around," Angel said. "Just hand that over, and you'll have no trouble."

Eva spit blood from her mouth and shoved her hair out of her face. "It's a little late for that. I've had trouble with you Titans for a long time."

Releasing a vicious battle cry, Angel slammed his sparking fist into the ground, opening a massive crack and blowing Eva even farther away. She yelled until she landed hard on the ground.

"And just for the record," Angel growled, "I'm not a Titan."

Eva glared at him, then her gaze fell behind him, and she smiled. "I want you to meet a good friend of mine." She waved her hand, and a girl in dark clothing seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Miss Metal."

The girl put a hand on her slender hip, a tiny, evil smile on her face. "I don't have anything against you; I just don't like you."

"What a good reason to attack us!" Talon exclaimed grouchily.

The girl's smile faded. "I haven't attacked you. _Yet_." With that, she sat the guitar case she was holding onto the pavement, and a sharp sword literally appeared in her hands. She stood still for only a second, then in one leap, she was coming down hard towards Talon, her sword extended and ready to kill. She connected hard, but only with a white shield that was protecting Talon. Miss Metal, standing on the shield, turned to Rorek furiously, but before she could move, he extended his hand and she went flying backwards.

Stardust seemed to be the only one that didn't forget about Eva, and she scanned the darkness quickly, laying eyes on the girl's light-green dress and firing up her starbolts. When she got a good aim she let them fly, and the painful moan told her that she had hit her mark. She flew over to where Eva was laying and put a hand on her hip.

"You think I would forget about you?" Stardust said.

"Of course not," Eva said. Usually she seemed inexperienced and quite clueless and weak, but suddenly she was no-nonsense. Huge vines exploded from the ground and came down savagely at Stardust, who blasted them with her starbolts, but as many as she hit they just seemed to keep coming back. The thick vines wrapped around her ankles, wrists, and waist. She grunted and struggled, but the vines slammed her hard into the ground, knocking the breath out of her. Before she could even get some air, Eva stood up and the vines went to work again, this time tightening their dangrous grip on Stardust, attempting to crush her even to death.

Stardust, knowing that her life was in danger, fought back with her strength as hard as she could. She broke two vines, but they were quickly replaced with four more. Now she was almost completely covered in the powerful plants, and she knew she had to do something. She fired up her starbolts again, but to a much larger extent than normal. The vines glowed purple briefly, then exploded to pieces. Stardust turned her eye beams onto Eva, hitting the red-headed girl square in the stomach and driving her somewhat into the ground.

Meanwhile, Rorek and Talon were fighting Miss Metal tooth and nail, but the girl was powerful with her sword and took Talon out of the battle quickly. Rorek did not feel as if he would be defeated by the girl, since he was very experienced in swords himself, but he didn't want to make his attacks on her too brutal. He knew that he could kill her instantly, though he just usually let on that his powers were weaker than they really were. In reality, he was practically unstoppable if he wanted to be.

When Miss Metal brought the sword down at Rorek again, he caught it with a hand on each side of the flat part of the blade and yanked it clear out of her hands. He grabbed the handle and went to make quick work of the girl. She may have been good with her sword, but Rorek was better. It was all that Miss Metal could do to keep from being sliced to pieces. Rorek saw the fear in her eyes, and his polite nature almost let him cease his attack on her, but he thought better of it and only came on stronger. The girl backflipped backwards out of the sword's reach, but she was only in safety for a brief moment. The more she backed up, the more Rorek came forward. She jumped away again, and this time her backflip landed her far enough away from him so that she could take a breath. She put her hand forward, and Rorek felt the sword in his hands shudder, then it went towards Miss Metal's outstretched hand as if a magnet were pulling it. The force became so powerful that Rorek had to let go, and the weapon shot into the girl's hand.

"Get your own weapon," she said harshly, then a flying kick on her part smashed Rorek face-first on to the pavement and sent him sliding.

Miss Metal looked around and saw that no one was attacking her at the moment, and she stabbed the point of the sword onto the ground and leaned on the brunt end of the handle, thinking herself victorious but wondering where Eva was. A purple and green explosion from the far side of a building gave her a quick answer, and just as she was thinking about going to help, her sword was kicked out from under her with such force that her whole body shook briefly. The weapon clattered to the ground yards away, and Miss Metal looked in fury to see who had done it.

Before she could even really tell, she was being punched with such speed and agility that she couldn't even move. The number of the blows kept her from falling to the ground, for every time she was going to, she was just punched again and thrown of gravitational course. Then a smashing kick into her stomach sent her through a wall and into the nearest building.

She shoved some heavy steel off of her and held her head painfully. Seeing movement outside, she jumped up and hid beside a door. Suddenly, the wall sparked with light purple electricity, and the whole thing was moved away from the rest of the building and landed on the ground with a tremendous crash.

Her attacker was the black-haired boy in the trenchcoat whom she thought was named Angel. Why, she didn't know, but she didn't have time to think. He jumped into the building beside her and punched her clear to the wall of the next building, and was on her again even before she had time to fall back down to earth. It was obvious that he could fly, though Miss Metal had never seen anyone do it except for Stardust, and he beat her savagely until she slammed into the ground.

Shaken, she was quite done with this fight, but the boy was obviously not. He tried hard to hit her with his powers, and he was a good aim, but Miss Metal back-handspringed out of the way desperately. Never had she seen someone who fought the way he did. His different moves seemed endless, and so did his determination to defeat her. She didn't know where her sword was, but she didn't have even a second to look for it. This boy Angel was coming on strong, and for a brief moment she found it attractive. He was a lot like her, wearing black leather under his long jacket, and both eyes were painted black up to his eyebrows, and if he stood still long enough, she would see that his fingernails were also black. But nevertheless, finding him attractive was pointless, since they were obviously on two different sides, and anything romantic between them would never work. Especially if he didn't like her. And he didn't talk and made comments about the battle when he fought, like most of the Titans did; he was just silent and got right down to business. She thought all of this in a brief second, then concentrated on being spared by his vicious power of electricity.

But she couldn't dodge forever, for his eye and his aim were keen, and his power eventually hit her hard. She couldn't describe the feeling of being shocked like this. She lost all feeling and tried to move, but realized that it was Angel who was now controlling her body. He smashed her back and forth, onto the pavement, into the side of a building, into another building, back onto the ground, and finally let her go in mid-air, where she continued to fly from the momentum of his throwing her around, but finally she made contact with the ground again, barely conscious.

Angel raised his hands, and a huge chunk of the broken asphalt, sparking with his electricity, came up from the ground and was on its way to smashing Miss Metal, but Rorek fired off a ball of his energy, hitting the huge rock squarely. Now it was glowing and sparking white and light purple, and the boys both had control of the giant slab of rock.

"That's enough," Rorek said sternly.

"Stay out of this," Angel said, moving his hands to the right in an attempt to break Rorek's mental hold on the rock.

Rorek tightened his fists, and the rock refused to move. "I said it was enough. Now let go."

Angel struggled to move the rock, but Rorek's hold would not break either. "Why don't you just back off!"

"No, you've done enough; you're not going kill her." Miss Metal had passed out on the ground under the rock, oblivious to the struggle of life and death above her.

"Angel!" someone yelled, and the rock suddenly blew to pieces. Rorek shielded his face from the debris, and when all was clear, saw that Stardust was hovering in the air with a starbolt charged up and her eyes glowing. And then he was relieved that she had blown up the rock.

"If you ever plan on being a part of this team," Stardust said coldly, "you're going to have to learn how to take an order. Next time you're told to do something, I strongly expect you to do it."

Angel immediately came back with an argument. "If you just get rid of your enemies, all the trouble will be over. Why not just get it over with while you have the chance?"

"I don't know where you're from," Stardust said slowly, "but we don't do things that way here. And if you plan on sticking around, you won't do that either."

Angel looked angry but confused too. It was obvious that wherever he was from or wherever he had been, he was used to killing his enemies at first chance. Stardust knew that he probably didn't have many enemies, since he was obviously powerful and very skilled, and if anyone had any sense, they would stay on this boy's good side.

"Where's Eva?" Rorek asked, looking at Stardust.

"I don't know, she left in a plume of smoke," she replied, but keeping her sharp eyes leveled at Angel, who looked away.

Talon walked up on the scene, holding her arm. "I'm sorry, I could have helped you, but I barely did anything at all!"

"It's okay," Stardust said. "You did the best you could."

Talon shook her head. "No, that was not the best I could do. I know you've been trying to train me, Stardust, but I just feel like a lost cause. I just get in the way."

"You're not a lost cause." Stardust massaged her forehead, then looked at all the damage than surrounded the wide area where the battle took place. "I guess we should clean this up. It might take awhile, though."

Angel outstretched his arm and raised his hand. Every broken piece of asphalt, rock, and metal quivered briefly, then rose off the ground and fused together, then went back exactly where they had come from, and it looked like nothing had even happened.

Talon raised an eyebrow. "Wow. You're really good. I'm impressed."

Angel shrugged, and Stardust narrowed her eyes. "Angel. Look, you would be a great addition to the team, but you need to prove that you're willing to take orders and commands. You have to listen to us. And me especially. I am the leader of this team."

Angel nodded. "I'll try. It's just that I'm used to doing things my own way."

"I know. But there's no '_I'_ in '_team'_. Maybe you could just watch us for awhile, and see how we work together. You might get the hang of it then."

Talon laughed. "Well, he has no problem with the actual battle. You wiped the floor with Eva and that other girl. Uh, speaking of which, where is she?"

Rorek turned and pointed. Miss Metal was still laying on the ground, unconscious.

"Is she alive?" Stardust said, and flew over to the girl. She bent down and checked for a pulse, relieved that there was one. She picked her up effortlessly and looked at the others. "Let's take her to jail and get home. I'm exhausted. Angel, you can come with us, but it doesn't make you an official member of the team yet."

Angel nodded. "I understand."

"All you have to do is prove to us that you'll do things our way. All right?"

He saluted, and Talon giggled. "Can do, commander."

Stardust raised her eybrows. "Good."

Though there was no need for it, a fire roared in the firplace of the small apartment. Kory stirred a cup of hot tea and set it on the table in front of Nightwing. He had told her of his brief battle with Stardust and her British friend, and Kory was saddened by the story.

"I do not know why Stardust would attack you," she said.

Nightwing stared into the steaming mug and rested his chin on his hand. "I think she's still angry at me, Starfire."

"I know that you and I had our arguments, but I am afraid that Stardust blames the entire situation on you, though I do not know why. It was as much my fault as it was yours."

"We both had our faults, and I'd say we still do." He put his hands palms-down on the table and looked up at the beautiful woman in front of him. "She's powerful and strong, just as you were when you were her age. She controls her powers well, though I'd appreciate it more if she wasn't trying to use them on me."

A tiny but worried smile crept onto Kory's face. "I must talk with her."

Nightwing raised his hand. "No, you might as well not. I can tell that she has a hard head. She's determined to do what she wants when she sets her mind on it."

"Like you?" Kory suggested.

Nightwing was silent, but he knew Kory was right. Now that he looked back on his youth, he saw how hard-headed and stubborn he had been, though he had not seen it at the time. He used to tend to get obsessed with things, and he only hoped that Stardust had not inherited that trait of his. It had gotten him into a lot of trouble when he was young.

"What should I do? I have a hard job in Gotham, so I can't really stay around here so much."

The red-headed Tamaranian nodded. "I know. You do the thing you are best at- fighting crime by night. It is your occupation, and you cannot just quit; not with the way things are in that city. I know that it is very dangerous. It needs you. Our daughter and her friends take care of Jump City now, just as we did when we were teenagers. It is in safe hands, especially with Stardust leading the team."

"That's good." That was all he had to say.

"She is a lot like you, Ro- Nightwing."

Nightwing looked down. "It's been a long time since you've called me that."

"I am sorry, sometimes I cannot help it. It just slips out-"

"I know. I still call you Starfire, though I shouldn't..."

"No, you may call me what you wish."

He laughed slightly. "That's a relief."

Kory smiled and punched his arm lightly. "Yes- Robin."

Back at the tower, Stardust entered the code to open the door, and they all went inside, including Angel. He had proved to be a great fighter, but he was stubborn and had a hard time taking orders. But Stardust knew that if he really wanted to be on the team, he would get over that quickly.

"I'm so tired, and I barely did anything," Talon said, walking inside and stretching her arms.

"If anyone should be tired, it should be Angel," Rorek said. He and Angel traded withering looks, then turned away from each other.

Stardust sighed heavily. As if they didn't have enough problems, now the two boys in the house had a hard time getting along. She shoved her hair out of her face and sighed again. Her arms were hurting from the struggle with Eva's vines, but she knew she had better get used to that if she and her team were going to protect the entire city.

Thankfully, there was enough room in the elevator for all of them, and Stardust was glad when they reached the top story of the tower. They walked through the halls and when they entered the main room, which was dark, she sensed Rorek stiffen quickly, and it put her senses on alert, though she seen or heard nothing.

"What?" Angel said. "What's wrong with him?"

Stardust was about to answer, but out of the shadows came a voice that she did not know, but somehow it managed to send chills down her spine.

"Hello, Titans," the voice said calmly. "I was beginning to think I would never get to meet you."

Talon punched the light switch and the room was finally visible. A large man in a mask and body armor stood leaning against the far wall. "Don't you think we should get acquainted?"

Stardust drew in a deep breath and gasped. She couldn't belive her eyes.

"Slade!"


	10. Chapter 10

Stardust hit the wall hard, her breath knocking violently out of her chest. She coughed and shoved her hair out of her face, her eyes on the man in front of her. The Titans had been battling Slade for the past twenty minutes, and the top floor of the tower was in shambles. The team had been driven to its knees just by one man, and now Stardust knew how the first team of Titans felt. This guy seemed unbeatable, though he had to be over the age fifty.

He cracked his neck and sighed lightly. "You don't even put up much of a fight," he said. "I was expecting more."

Just as he finished the sentence, Angel came down unexpectedly with a flying kick and knocked Slade clear across the room. Stardust saw her chance and quickly threw starbolts in the man's direction, and most of the spheres hit their mark, though the rest only blew a hole in the wall. She leveled her gaze at Slade, then let her eye beams fly directly into his stomach, knocking him out of the open hole of the tower.

"Did we just win?" Talon asked warily. There was silence for a few seconds, then a small and round device clinked to the ground in front of them, flashing red.

Stardust gasped, but there was no time to move. The bomb exploded with a tremendous crash, and she expected to be injured or at least go smashing to the ground from the force of the blast, but she did neither. She moved her arms away from shielding her face and blinked hard. Rorek had his hands extended outward, and in front of him was a white transparent shield that had protected them from the danger of the bomb. The smoke cleared on the other side, and Rorek dropped his hands and the shield died.

"Good job, Rorek," Stardust said, coughing and waving the smoke away from her face. She walked to the hole in the wall and looked down at the rocks below, but saw nothing. She turned and looked at the rest of her team. "Where is he?"

"That's a good question," Talon said. She sat down at the computer chair, which was about the only thing that wasn't damaged, and started typing. The screen appeared on the huge window, and a red dot was blinking right at the base of the tower. She pointed. "That's where he is. Which, in other words, is the basement of the tower."

"Not for long," Stardust said, and motioned for the team to follow her as she made her way downstairs.

Ten stories down, Stardust kicked the door of the basement in and flicked on the light. Between the crates and boxes, Slade stood with his arms patiently behind his back. Stardust jumped forward and made a grab for him, but she went right through him and crashed to the ground.

"A hologram!" Talon exclaimed.

"But where's the real deal?" Angel said, scanning the room with his purple eyes.

Stardust slammed her fist onto the floor in frustration. "The real Slade probably hasn't even been here tonight."

"But we fought him," Talon said. "And we felt him. It _had_ to be him."

"No it didn't," Stardust said, getting to her feet and brushing herself off. "It could have just as well been a robot for all we know."

"I'm going to the computer to check for another signal," Talon said, and disappeared up the stairs. A few minutes later she beeped in to Stardust's communicator and sighed. "There's nothing. Robot or real guy, he's not here."

Stardust groaned. "We could have had him... or it, whatever it really was."

"Well, this is actually a good thing that he's not here anymore," Angel said, stretching his back. "It means we don't hafta fight."

"That's true," Stardust said, then went upstairs, the rest of the team following. Just as they were reaching the top floor, the alarm sounded and the lights flashed red. Stardust's grip tightened on the railing of the steps, and it crushed under the force of her strength.

"Do we ever get a break?" Talon whined, her shoulders slumping.

"Doesn't matter, we have to go anyway," Stardust said.

A few minutes later, the team was at the location of where the alarm was first sounded, which was an old abandoned building. Stardust smashed the door in, not even bothering to see if it was unlocked, and fired up her starbolts, ready for battle. She was disappointed to see nothing.

"Darn it!" Talon said. "Did we just come out here for no reason?"

No one answered, because the ground was shaking beneath them, and then a huge robot busted through the tile floor, an _MM _inscribed on the front of it. It shot out a long arm at them, but they all scattered just in time.

"Nope, this is a reason," Angel said, landing his backflip gracefully.

"I just want to go home!" Talon said.

"Shut-up and fight!" Stardust yelled, throwing starbolts wildy at the robot in front of them.

Suddenly the robot froze in mid-move, and then to the Titans surprise, it started melting slowly. Talon raised her eyebrow quizically and looked at Stardust, who was just as stumped over the situation. Her starbolts could heat things up and melt things occasionally, but not usually a metal this large and thick. She shrugged.

"Hey," a familiar voice said. When the robot melted down to the ground, Miss Metal was standing in the liquid remains. "Do you like what I made?"

They all stared at her silently. Her face fell, and she raised her hands. "I _made_ it. Isn't it cool?"

Talon put her hands on her hips. "What are you trying to do pull? We don't care what you make, we just want to stop you from destroying, stealing, attacking, or whatever you plan on doing. All right?"

Miss Metal sighed. The sword she had used in their previous battle was not with her. "Hey, I didn't ask for this job." Then she extended her hand, and a metal beam that was supporting the building melted somewhat, then moved completely from where it was and bent and wrapped around Talon's arms and legs.

"That's fitting," Angel said. "She can manipulate metals."

"So?" Stardust said, dodging different pieces of the steel structure of the building that was being thrown at her. "Just concentrate on defeating her, okay?"

"Sure," Angel said, blasted her with his powers easily.

When she hit the ground, Rorek came down with a monserous punch that smashed her a few feet down into the ground. She pulled herself up, raised her hand, and threw Rorek back without even touching him.

"She can control him by his armor!" Angel whooped, nearly impressed. He knew he shouldn't be, but he couldn't help it. This girl was unlike any he had ever seen, despite all the dimensions he had been to.

"That's right," she said, and kicked Angel in the stomach, aiming to knock him off his feet, but her boot connected with a six-pack that might as well have been a brick wall. He grabbed her by the ankle and threw her over his shoulder, and she landed hard on her face.

"Tell me," Stardust said to her. "What exactly are you trying to do? Are you fighting us only for a workout?"

"Don't ask questions," Miss Metal said, and a thick stream of melted metal appeared out of nowhere and splashed down onto Stardust, knocking her onto the ground.

Talon aimed her powers and fired them crazily at the girl, but she missed every time. Miss Metal dodged way too quickly to be hit by her, but she wasn't paying attention to Rorek's power that had been shot from behind. It connected with the back of her head and sent her flipping. She slid on her face and crashed into Angel's rock-hard shoes. He bent down and grabbed her by the shoulders. She struggled to move, but had no control over her own body, and had no choice but to let Angel smash her around a bit, which he did. When he released her, they were clear across the building and out of sight of the others.

Miss Metal was laying on the ground, and she ran her fingers through her blonde hair and looked up at him. "Why are you doing this?"

"You attacked us first. Why do you think I'm doing it? Besides, I'm on a team and have to take orders. It's just the way it goes. Why are _you_ doing this?"

She smiled almost flirtatiously at him. "Because I have to take orders, just the same as you. I guess it's just the way it goes."

Angel considered that maybe this chick didn't really want to fight the Titans, or at least him personally. She had basically already said that she was working for or with someone, and when he thought back he realized that she might be being forced to fight them. He almost felt compassion, and bent down to her level.

"Are you doing this against your will?"

She waved her hand at him. "It doesn't matter. I have to do what I have to do. I'm sure you understand that. Did you say you are a dimension-hopper?"

"Yeah."

She smiled again. "I'm sure you meet a lot of pretty girls, then."

He was badly tempted to say, _Yes, but none as pretty as you, _but he didn't dare. Stardust would put a hole through him if he did. So he said instead, "What's your point?"

Miss Metal's flirty expression died. "Well, I don't know. I was just pointing out a fact, I guess."

"Well let me point this out to you. You've made yourself our enemy, and we have no choice but to take you down."

She looked at the floor. "Then why don't you just do it now? You've had the chance for the past few minutes, you know."

He stared at her in surprise. The thing was, he didn't want to fight her anymore. The other day he had nearly killed her, yes, but now something was different and he didn't know why. He only looked at her, his mouth open.

"It's not every day you have that kind of opportunity," Miss Metal said, rising to her feet. "Why didn't you take it? You could have already had me defeated."

"I-" And he could say no more. He didn't know why he was so tongue-tied. She was just a girl; it wasn't like he had never been around one before. A lot of them were attracted to him because he traveled a lot, he guessed because they found it interesting. He was used to girls having crushes on him, but this was different somehow.

"You what?" she said quietly.

"I don't know," he snapped. "Just back off, okay?" With that he shot her with a stream of electricity and drove her hard into the wall.

The rest of the team located Angel and asked where Miss Metal was. He pointed to the wall where she had landed, but she wasn't there anymore. "She was just here," he said.

They searched for her only for a few minutes, but found nothing. Stardust suggested they go home, and when they reached the tower Angel immediately went to his room and closed the door. He rested his back on the wall and breathed deeply. How could one girl have such a big impact on him? Did he have feelings for her? He scoffed at himself. Of course not, he didn't even know the girl. And besides, she was a villain- an enemy; there was no way he could get involved with her, not at all. Staying away from her was the best thing, he decided. Fight her, yes, but otherwise stay away from her. Yes, he decided, smiling slightly. But he had to admit that he was attracted to her, for some odd reason he didn't know.

He slid down the wall and sat on the floor, his trenchcoat spread out across the floor. He was so used to being solitary that he found it hard to bond with other people, especially the Titans. They expected him to fight by their side and do good for the city, or whatever, but little did they know that he didn't plan on sticking around. He had told Miss Metal that he was part of a team, but it wasn't entirely true. Stardust was still making him prove himself worthy to be trusted, so she had not given him a communicator or made him officially part of the team. He pulled his knees to his chest and sighed heavily. It was only a matter of time before he moved on to the next planet or dimension.

His past was quite tragic, and therefore he never talked about it. He was sure he wasn't the only one that had that kind of thing in his past, so he didn't use it as an excuse to be violent or rude. And he didn't plan on telling anyone about the pain he was going through and the secrets he held.

Unless he found someone that he trusted with his whole heart.


	11. Chapter 11

Three months had passed quickly since the Titans' first battle with Slade, and they had not seen him again so far. But it was not as if they were out of a job; they had plenty to do, ranging from super villains, monsters, or just plain every-day criminals. As the first team before them, they were mostly adored by the people of Jump City, and frequently they were stopped on the street and asked for autographs or pictures.

Stardust had finally caved in and let herself trust Angel, and he was now an offical Titan, and he never slacked at his job. Though no one pointed it out, he was the best and most experienced fighter on the team, and when they were faced with the losing of a fight, he always solved the problem. In the first stages of battle, he mostly stood back and let the original members do the work, but if he felt it necessary, he would always come in and take the enemy down.

Now he crossed his legs at the ankles and leaned his back against the brick wall of the abandoned building. He wasn't sure what time it was (he couldn't really keep up with all the time zones and dimensional clock reading), but he knew that he had been waiting here too long. He tapped his slender fingers on the wall and sighed quietly. He had done this every night for a couple of months, and he hadn't had to wait this late. Suddenly alarmed, he dreaded that something wasn't right.

Just as he moved away from the wall and took a step, there was a thud behind him. He whirled around in a defensive stance, but relaxed when he felt a small, feminine hand on his arm.

He took the girl by the waist and kissed her affectionately, and she returned the kiss. Then he pulled back and looked down into her eyes.

"You were late, and I thought something happened-"

"Angel," she said, putting a finger to his mouth. "You don't have to worry about me."

He glanced at the ground. "I can't help it. I don't _try_ to worry; it just happens."

She smiled and moaned happily. "I know." She put a hand on the back of his neck and ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm surprised you can still get away with coming to see me and not get yourself caught."

"So am I," he said. It had been weeks and still nobody knew. And he hoped it stayed that way. If Stardust knew he had been coming to see Miss Metal, she would kill him.

"Talon, you missed the target," Stardust said impatiently. It was the next afternoon, and the daily workout with the girl was not going so well. She knew that Talon was more powerful than she thought herself, but it was hard to prove that because her fighting skills were just... bad.

"I did?" Talon shielded her eyes from the sun and squinted. "Oh. I did."

Stardust nodded dryly. "You might want to _aim_ your powers instead of just throwing them around blinding."

"I agree," Rorek said from the sidelines. He had had to put up a quick shield to protect himself after Talon blasted her powers around wildly. She had been aiming for the target, but had missed badly.

"I'm sorry," she said now. "I just suck so bad at this."

"Not really," Stardust said. "It's not that you can't do it; it's just that you're not trying hard enough."

"I am trying!"

"It's not good enough! I've showed you how to approach the target, but-"

"I just can't do it," Talon said stubbornly.

Stardust felt like slapping her to Gotham City. She opened her mouth to verbally abuse her, but Rorek held up a hand and shook his head. Stardust sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Well, I guess we'll try again tomorrow."

Talon nodded, discouraged, and went into the tower. Stardust turned to Rorek. "We'll see if she can hit the broad side of a barn tomorrow."

Rorek fought a smile. "She's quite complicated. She wants to learn, but she won't put up an effort."

"I know! That's what I've been trying to tell her. She just won't listen to me."

"Maybe I could show her a few things tomorrow." He held up his hands. "I'm not saying you're doing a bad job-"

"That's a great idea, would you?" she said sweetly.

He nodded slowly. "Perhaps it would do me some good."

She stared at him. "Do _you_ some good? Why? How could she possibly teach you anything?"

He shrugged.

She narrowed her eyes at him, a small smile on her face. "You were just being humble, weren't you? Well, stop it." She smiled fliratiously and punched his arm lightly.

He grabbed his arm in mock pain and scowled at her, though she knew he wasn't serious. "Be careful, Star, you do have Tamaranian strength, you know."

"Oops," she said, putting a hand to her mouth. "I guess I do need to be more careful with that. When I still went to school, I was going into the classroom and I accidentally ripped the whole door off it's hinges."

Rorek raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, but the teachers just thought it was a problem with the door. So nobody knew about my powers until I almost blasted a girl with my eye beams..."

"Really? She must have really ticked you off."

"She did." Stardust made a fist, remembering very well what had happened that day. She closed her eyes. "But it doesn't matter anymore. Things are great, now."

"I'm glad you think so. Sometimes, I admit, I miss my hometown and my family, but this day and age is so wonderful, though I've had a hard time adjusting."

Stardust smiled. Rorek had taken a great interest in things electronic, though he had no clue how to use them, and once had accidentally blown the TV sky high out of frustration. "I know you have."

"You've been a wonderful help in explaining things to me. Without you, I would be clueless." He looked down. "Well, without you, I wouldn't really be anywhere."

She wasn't sure exactly what he meant by that, but it made her feel excited. She had grown so fond of him over the past few months (not that she wasn't before, she was just more so now), and she wondered if he liked her as well. She had suspected he did, since he had kissed her a while back, but he _was_ a guy, and he could have done it just because he felt like it. But she didn't see him as that kind of person. He was sweet, kind, humble, very respectful, and he had never done anything untrustworthy. In fact, she trusted him more than anyone else, even her own mother.

Stardust suddenly froze, deep in thought. It had been weeks since she had seen Kory, and now she felt kind of bad for it. Of course, the last time she went to the apartment Nightwing was there, and it had ticked her off and she went back to the tower. Now she put a hand to her forehead and stared off into space.

"Star, are you all right?" Rorek said, clearly concerned.

"Yeah... uh, yeah. I'm fine." She tossed her hair. "Where's Angel? It's late and he should have been back a long time ago."

"Well I'm sure he's fine. He can take care of himself. And everyone else."

Stardust laughed. "Tell me about it. He's a powerhouse." Her communicator sounded the alarm for trouble, and she pinpointed where they should go to take care of it. "I'm going to go tell Talon she has the day off. It'll be better that way for now."

She flew up to the roof and went in the door, down the steps, and into the living room. "Talon?"

She heard a cough, and saw the girl sitting on the couch with her legs crossed. "Yeah?"

"Why don't you just take the day off. Me and Rorek are going to go and take care of whatever's causing trouble. We'll be back soon."

"All right."

Stardust, puzzled, moved forward and put a hand on Talon's shoulder. From an angle, she suddenly realized that she was crying. "Hey, what's the matter?"

Talon sniffed. "I'm so worthless, Stardust. I'm just so worthless to this team..."

"No you're not," Stardust said sternly. "You just have a little training to go through, is all. Once you discover how your powers work, you'll rock hard."

"I dunno..."

"Don't think I don't care how you feel. I do. But I have some butt to kick, so I'll be back soon."

She left the tower and motioned Rorek to come with her, and they traveled to where the alarm signal had been sounded from. They immediately saw ice and snow on the edges of buildings and on the pavement, and Stardust sighed.

"Looks like winter finally came to California. Where's the trouble?"

"_Star_dust!" an unfamiliar male voice cried out. Stardust whirled around and saw a blond-haired boy in a white and blue costume, standing on a floating piece of ice. She raised one eyebrow, her mouth open.

"And you are...?"

"Ha, very funny. I'm your number one fan!"

"That's real nice, but I still don't know you. What's your name?"

"Prince. Everybody should know me." He smiled, his teeth showing.

"So you have powers. What's the reason for all this ice?"

"I just wanted to get your attention. And now that I have you here, I have just one question."

"And what's that?"

He spread his arms, his cape falling over his shoulers. "Will you go on a date with me?"

Stardust stared at him, her mouth wide open. A date? Heck no! But she didn't want to say that to him. He hadn't really done anything rude or destructive.

"A date? Sorry, but-"

"Aw, come on. What do you have to lose? It won't hurt anything."

Stardust glanced at Rorek and was surprised to see his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed evilly. She could tell that he was dying to say something, but was obviously letting her handle the situation. After all, it concerned her and not him.

"Sorry, uh... Prince. That's your name, right?"

He sighed heavily. "Just one date is all I ask."

"No, I'm sorry." She looked at Rorek. "Let's go."

Rorek nodded and took her upper arm gently, but just as his fingers made contact, his hand and all the way up to his shoulder was frozen in a block of ice.

Prince raised a finger. "Look, no touching my girl."

Stardust's eyes glowed purple. "Your girl?"

Prince ignored her and walked up to face Rorek, who blew the ice off his arm with an explosion of white light from his hand. Prince leaned forward, his head tilted up challengingly at Rorek, and grinned wickedly. "I guess that means I have some competition."

"There is no competing going on here," Stardust said. She pointed her finger at Prince. "Look, Freeze Pop, I don't even know you, and I wouldn't really give a crap if I did. So just go back to wherever you came from and-"

"Not without you," Prince said gently. Stardust sighed. He reached out and took her hand, smiling. "At least give me a chance. I'm not here just to flirt with you-"

His sentence was cut short by a blast of white power from Rorek's hand, and he went smashing and sliding to the ground. Rorek, his hand still raised and fingers spread, narrowed his eyes viciously. "The only thing you're here flirting with is death. If you want to fight, I gladly accept your challenge."

"Rorek, no," Stardust said, but he raised a finger to silence her.

Prince stood up from the ground and growled, and the two boys shot forward at the same time, their powers hitting each other and canceling the other out. Rorek was too fast for Prince, and came forward with a punch to the face that grounded the other boy yards away.

Stardust flew over and siezed Rorek's arm. "Stop it. Just leave him and let's go."

"Star, I don't turn down blunt challenges. Especially not this one." He leaped forward again, and the ground under Prince glowed white and exploded right under him, sending him once again flying.

Stardust put a hand to her forehead and looked down. Boys! But when she got to thinking about it, she was almost excited. Rorek was fighting another boy- over her! She didn't let it go to her head that boys were fighting because of her, but she let it go to her heart that Rorek was so quick to defend her from another guy. She hoped that it was because he liked her, and not just a protective tenth-century kind of thing.

Stardust flinched as Rorek took a hard kick to the jaw, but he did not go down. Instead he grabbed Prince's ankle in mid-air and slammed him back and forth twice onto the pavement, then threw him to the side. The entire block was covered in ice, from the ground to the top of the buildings. A flying piece of ice that had come from Prince's hand and was meant for Rorek hit her in the stomach and froze her entire body. She tried to move, but the ice was strong. Just as she was about to break free with her starbolts, Rorek came flying backwards and slammed into her frozen form, knocking her to the ground and shattering most of the ice.

"Forgive me," Rorek said, jumping quickly to get off her. She rubbed her head and looked around for prince, who was was jumping forward viciously, his sights set on Rorek, who turned just in time and extended his hand quickly. Prince stopped in mid-air, crackling from white energy, and was thrown backwards, thanks to Rorek.

Stardust looked at Rorek. "Just stop this and let's go home. Seriously." When she saw that he was about to protest, she narrowed her eyes. "That's an order, Titan." He looked at the ground, and she knew he was giving in.

Prince hit the ground and was up again just as quick, and was on his way to Rorek's location when a purple glowing fist aimed at his face made him stop on a dime or else be fried.

"Stop it," Stardust said commandingly. "This fight is over, and I don't want to see you again after this."

"All I asked for was one date! How hard could that be?"

"And I said no!" Stardust yelled, her eyes turning purple abd accompanying her glowing fist. Prince stared at her fearfully. "Now go back to where you came from before make _quick_ work of you. If you're my number one fan, then you have to know how much my starbolts hurt. If you don't, would you like to find out?"

He only stared at her, then a gust of wind and blowing snow overtook him, and he was gone.

That night at the Tower, the Stardust, Rorek, and Talon were sitting on the cough watching TV when the door slid open unexpectedly. Angel walked in and grabbed a soda out of the fridge. They all turned to look at him.

"I didn't think you were gonna come back," Stardust said.

Angel made a big deal of swallowing his drink, then wiped his mouth on his jacket sleeve. "Why not? Do I have to be here 24/7?"

"No. I was just wondering."

"You still don't trust me, do you? What, do you think I am, a double agent or something? Give me a break."

"Okay, okay." She paused, then said, "What were you really doing, then?"

He turned and glared at her, the blackness on his eyes making him look all the more intimidating. "If you _have_ to know, I took a trip." He frowned. "To another dimension, since I know you'll ask anyway." He mumbled the last part.

"Oh." She turned back to the TV.

He walked to the window and crossed his arms, looking out over the sparkling water and up at the full moon. What he said had been true; he really did go to another dimension, but he also had been taking a long walk with Miss Metal. He closed his eyes. He wasn't a double agent- he was just in love. And he didn't know how long he could keep this up.


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning was dark and wet, the nearly black clouds bringing constant rain. Stardust woke up and looked at her digital clock, which read 8:40 am. The alarm hadn't gone off at 7 o'clock like it was supposed to, and she had overslept somewhat. But she guessed it might actually be a good thing, since she and the rest of the team except for Angel had stayed up late watching a horror movie, which had scaered Talon to death. Stardust got up and put on jeans and a t-shirt instead of her regular uniform, not suspecting much villain activity for the day. Besides for Prince the day before, the Titans' work had been a little slow.

She walked into the kitchen and wasn't surprised to see that Rorek was already up, and it looked like he had been for hours. He usually got up before the sun rose, and now he looked up at her and smiled, also in civilian clothes. She smiled back and opened the refridgerator, accidentally pulling the door handle off again. She sighed and threw it to the side, too tired to worry about fixing it.

"You're up a little late," he said cheerfully.

"Yeah, and I still didn't sleep enough. Has anything been happening?"

"Not really."

"Is everybody else still asleep?"

"Talon is, but I think Angel left a few minutes ago."

Stardust sighed and sat down at the table. "He left again? I think something's up with him. He goes out and doesn't come back for hours, and I don't think he's hopping dimensions the whole time."

Rorek shrugged. "It's hard to tell."

"Well, I guess if he's not doing anything to harm the team, it's none of my business," she said.

Talon walked into the room, brushing her short black hair and holding an envelope in her free hand. She held it up and waved it. "Fan mail!"

Stardust took it from her and opened it, Rorek and Talon hovering over each shoulder to get a good look. Stardust cleared her throat and read. "_Dear Teen Titans, I'm writing this on account of my five year-old sister, Lucy, who idolizes all of you. Her birthday is next week and all she asked for was to meet you, not wanting anything else. We all know you're busy with more important things, but if you could come to meet her, it'd make her really happy." _It gave an address, then said,_ signed, Rusty. _Stardust folded it and tossed it across the table. "We don't have the time. And besides, do you know how many people want to meet us personally? If we give in to this little kid, everyone will expect us to do it for them. So I say no." She looked up and met Talon and Rorek's pointed expressions. Rorek raised an eyebrow, and Stardust sighed defeatedly. "Oh, all right. We'll go see her today I guess."

"Good," Talon said, clapping her hands once. "I think it's really sweet that that kid likes us so much."

"I guess it's kind of touching," Stardust said. She tapped her knuckles on the table lightly. "We need to find Angel, or we'll just go without him."

Talon pulled out her communicator and searched for Angel's signal, which appeared in the tower. Stardust slammed a fist on the table. "He doesn't want us to know where he is. Something's up, I tell you. And he's done this just out of the blue a couple of months ago."

"Maybe he has a girlfriend," Talon said.

"But why would it be such a big secret?"

"Maybe he's embarassed."

Just as she said this, the door to the living room slid open and Angel walked in, oblivious to the conversation. He stopped when he saw Stardust's irritated look. "What?"

"Do you ever stay here for ten minutes?" she said, standing up from her chair. "We could have been called out to battle, and you're not even here to help us. What's up with you?"

"Hey, I'm a busy guy, I have other things to do too. And besides, I know when there's trouble; I have my communicator."

"How often? I know you leave it here sometimes."

"I might as well, it won't pick up in other dimensions anyway."

Stardust narrowed her eyes and was going to argue, but Rorek nudged her arm and shook his head slightly. She knew he wasn't one for confrontation, so she picked up the letter and handed it to Angel. "Read it, and you'll know where we're going."

Angel read it quickly, then glanced up at her. "Do we have to?"

"You don't, but the rest of us are going." Angel shrugged and walked away after handing the letter back to her. She frowned and mumbled, "I'm sure that kid doesn't even like you anyway."

After changing into their uniforms, the Titans headed off to the address that was so carefully written in the letter. Luckily for them, it had stopped raining at the moment, though the clouds were still thick and dark. Stardust flew down from the sky and walked between the other two Titans so she could talk to them better. "Now we have to be careful, as you already know. This could easily be a trap set up by some super villain, so let's not let our guard down."

After awhile more of walking, they left the city and came upon actual grass and houses, and Talon pointed to one of the mailboxes and stopped. "That's got to be it."

They went across the nicely cut lawn and Stardust knocked on the door. There was silence at first, but then the door was opened by a teenaged boy, who raised his eyebrows in shock of seeing them. Stardust held out the letter. "You wanted to see us?"

"Yeah," he said, still obviously surprised. "Hold on a second." He closed the door again, then returned with a blonde-haired, skinny little girl by his side, who screamed when she saw who was at her front door.

"It's the Teen Titans!" she yelled, and leaped forward and grabbed Stardust's leg in a hug.

Stardust, who usually wasn't that crazy about kids, now smiled at the sweetness of this one. She reached down and patted her on the back. "Yeah, you said you wanted to see us for your birthday. So, here we are."

"I can't believe it," the girl said, and pulled back to get a good look at all three of them. "Stardust, Rorek, Talon- where's Angel?"

Stardust hesitated. "He was really busy and couldn't come with us. But maybe you can meet him some other time."

She nodded, her mouth in a slight pout, but quickly brightened up again. "I still can't believe you're here! Look look, this is my big brother Rusty."

The teenage guy reached out and shook each of their hands. When he got to Stardust, she noticed how firm his grip was and wondered for a moment if he worked out, then threw the thought aside and concentrated on the task at hand. "You're sister's really sweet," she said.

"Yeah, she's been dying to meet you for months. I'm really glad you came."

Talon bent down to the girl's level and smiled. "So your name was Lucy, wasn't it?"

"Yep!" She stepped forward and whispered in Talon's ear, "You're my favorite, but don't tell the others. You're Rusty's favorite too."

Talon laughed, embarrassed, and put a hand to the back of her neck. "Well that's really sweet of you and your brother." She glanced up at Rusty, who was engaged in conversation with Stardust and Rorek. Talon stared at the boy for a moment and took in his features. He had brown hair, dark eyes, light skin, and he was fairly muscley in a natural way. He glanced down at her and smiled, showing his perfect teeth. Talon smiled back, too frozen at his good looks to even get up and talk to him.

Suddenly the ground shook slightly in the rhythm of heavy footsteps. Stardust took a few steps out into the yard and leveled her eyes in the direction of the sound, which seemed to be getting closer. Then came a huge figure from around the corner of a house, and Stardust gasped a little. Cinderblock! He hadn't been around for years, so why come out now? But she didn't have time to think on the matter, because the huge chunk of rock let out a roar and came pounding toward them.

She held out her hand in front of Rusty and Lucy. "You all better get back." Then she and the rest of the team shot forward, ready to meet the mass of rock head on.

Stardust was the first to come opon him, and she kicked him massively, sending him flying backwards away from the house._ Good, _she thought. Protecting Rusty and Lucy was the main mission right now, and trying to keep Cinderblock from smashing into other houses. She rained starbolts down onto him, and out of the corner of her eye saw that Lucy was in pure amazement. Stardust smiled, back backflipped quickly out of the way to dodge an oncoming blow from Cinderblock, who had gotten up and was coming towards them again. Rorek blasted him square in the chest, driving him back again, and Talon hit him with a wave of her power, actually hitting her mark this time.

Suddenly, Angel came down from the sky, planting his kick right to Cinderblock's face and knocking him to the ground with a tremendous crash.

"Angel!" Lucy cried out. Angel glanced at her and smiled, then flew out of the way to escape the huge rock's flying fists. But with one sweep of his arm, Cinderblock sent the Titans flying and smashing to the side uncontrolably. With them out of the way, he continued his walk forward, his eyes set on the two kids in front of him. He raised both fists above his head dangerously.

Stardust, who was still on the ground with the rest of team and was too far away to do anything about the oncoming attack on Rusty and Lucy, raised her hand and shouted, "No!" Why would Cinderblock want to attack those two innocent people for nothing? She aimed her fist and prepared a starbolt, but knew blasting him now wasn't going to help. Then the next things that happened went into motion so fast she could hardly blink.

Cinderblock's massive fists came down fast, but just as he was about to make contact Rusty raised his hands and the ground around him rose up into a pointed dome around himself and his sister. The structure shook violently, but luckily didn't break. Cinderblock stood there, puzzled at what had just happened. Then the rocks separated, and at the command of Rusty's hands, shot forward and hit Cinderblock hard, forcing him backwards. A rock emerged from the ground and Rusty jumped onto it, now using it as a stone hoverboard. He threw more boulders that each connected with their mark, then Cinderblock froze in mid-move and then was lifted into the air as Rusty lifted his hands. Cinderblock, who's body was now in the control of Rusty, was smashed back and forth onto the ground violently.

Lucy merely stood where Rusty had left her, and she did not look afraid at all, seemingly trusting that her brother would take care of her, as he probably had many times before. Then Cinderblock went flying so far that he landed way on the horizon and slammed into the water of the ocean, creating a huge splash.

Rusty jumped off his rock and let it fall gently to the ground, then turned to Lucy. "Are you okay?" She nodded.

The Titans were still laying on the ground a few yards away, in awe. They would have never guessed that Rusty had the power to control earth, and he had done a better job of defeating Cinderblock than they themselves had. He turned and looked down at them.

"You guys okay?" They nodded stupidly, and he put his hands on his hips and smiled down at them. "Come on, you're all superheroes. Haven't you ever seen anybody else with powers before?"

Stardust got to her feet, the rest of the team following her cue. "I just didn't expect it. For a minute there I thought you two were done for, and then I'd feel awful about that for the rest of my life..."

"Well don't feel bad now, it's over." He put his arm around his sister, who had come to stand beside him. "And truthfully, I kinda wanted to meet you just as much as Lucy did."

They all laughed. Stardust pulled out a spare communicator and held it out to him. "Our team is still growing, and your powers are impressive. Do you want to be our next member?"

Rusty stared at the device in Stardust's hand. Lucy patted his arm and smiled. "You should go with them, Mama won't care. It'll be awesome!"

Rusty smiled and took the communicator. "Sure."

Talon giggled. "We're glad you accepted. Now you should come to the tower with us!"

"I guess I should. But this is kind of short notice, so-"

"Go on, Rusty," Lucy said, shoving him a little. "You know Mama's always wanted you to be with them."

Rusty laughed. "I guess so." He patted Lucy's arm, then looked at the Titans. "Well, take me to this tower you were talkin' about."

"Now just plant your hand like that, and then-" Rusty threw Talon across the training room, and she slid across the floor harmlessly. "-you get that result. Nobody I've met yet can counter-act that move."

Talon stood up. "It was awesome. Can I try it on you?"

"Sure."

Rusty had been an official Titan for about a week now, complete with a mask and costume. Since he had come, Talon had been much more open to learning how to fight, and she was already improving in her martial arts moves, thanks to the training Rusty had given her. Now Stardust didn't have to train her, and she was quite glad. She had always been getting frustrated with Talon, and through all the arguing there was no learning going on.

Now Rusty flew across the room, but he twisted in the air and landed on his feet, laughing. "That was exactly how you do it. You're almost better than I am."

Talon put her hands on her hips and blew her bangs out of her face. "Well I couldn't have gotten better than you without you." They both laughed.

Outside the door of the training room, Stardust and Rorek and were spying in. Stardust looked at him and whispered, "Look how good she's gotten. She's so much more open to instruction now. I guess Rusty's just a better trainer than I am." She pretended to be sad about this, because she knew she would get compliments and sympathy from Rorek, and she felt like a brat.

"You were a great trainer." He reached out and touched the back of her hair. "I just believe she listens to him because he is a guy."

"That's probably true. But do you think I did something wrong when I tried? That maybe I was too bossy or harsh?"

"No, no. I don't believe that was the case at all. You did the best you could." His hand was still on the back of her neck, and he pulled her forward and kissed her passionately.

Talon came out of the training room, and Stardust and Rorek jumped back. Talon's eyebrows shot up. "Did I just see you two lip-locking?"

Stardust frowned, blushing. "You didn't see anything," she said threateningly.

Talon held up her hands. "Okay, I saw nothing. Well, uh, bye." She walked away quickly, and Rusty followed her.

Angel was downstairs on the first floor of the tower, preparing to leave to go see Miss Metal, when there was a slam outside, then the door burst in and blew to pieces, the alarm sounding. He gasped at what he saw and prepared himself to fight. This couldn't be happening, not now, not here...


	13. Chapter 13

_The metal barred door of the dark prison cell slid open violently and slammed against the far wall. The warden, his gun trained on the boy in shackles in front of him, lifted his chin and said in a gruff voice, "#468, the commander requests to see you."_

_Angel stood up slowly from the cement floor and walked over to the guard, who grabbed him roughly by the arm and led him down the long hall. The other prisoners looked on without a word, for they knew that the young man was probably not going to return to the cell, and so did Angel. There was no "small crime" in Dimension X, no pardoning offences. Either you lived in the prison for the rest of your life, or you were sent to death row. Angel had a sick feeling that that was where he was going now._

_The guard yanked him around a corner without even giving him a chance to walk himself. Angel knew that he was the most disliked person in the whole place, even by the other inmates, who were jealous of his ability to break out twelve times, though he never had gotten far and was always dragged back to his cell. For that reason, his wrists were kept together in shackles in front of him 24/7._

_Now they reached the commander's office, and the guard opened the heavy door and looked in._

_"Do you have #468?" the commander said, his hands folded on his desk in front of him._

_"Yes, sir."_

_"Bring him in."_

_The guard, who had never let go of Angel's arm, pulled him out of the dark hall and into the well lit room. The commander held up his hand at the guard and said, "You may leave now." The guard raised his eyebrows, then turned and left the room. Angel stood in front of the commander silently, only waiting for the words that would put him on death row._

_The commander folded his hands again and rested them on the desk, keeping his eyes on Angel. He didn't know how this boy in front of him had caused so much trouble, how he had accomplished the things he had, and how he had managed to escape a dozen times, but he was determined to find out. "#468," he said. "How long have you been in my prison?"_

_"Five months, sir."_

_The commander looked Angel's thin figure from head to toe, from his thick black hair and wild bangs, his somewhat pale face with black surrounding his eyes, his dark blue trenchcoat and shining leather shirt and pants beneath, down to his black knee-high boots and then back up to his face. He was impressed. And just to tease him he said, "And how have you been enjoying it here?"_

_Angel didn't hesitate. "I haven't, sir."_

_"I didn't think so." The commander leaned forward in his chair and held out his hand. "Come on closer." Angel took one step forward, but it was enough for the commander to reach him. He took his wrists, and suddenly the steel shackles hit the floor with a thud._

_Angel rubbed his wrists, staring at the commander in amazement. He was tempted to ask what was going on, but let the commander speak when he was good and ready. Obviously he was now._

_"#468, or should I say Angel, I have quite an offer for you." He motioned to a chair in front of him. "Why don't you sit down."_

_Angel sat slowly, cautious to what was going on and refusing to let his guard down. It had been something he had learned during the years of martial arts training with various instructors, all of whom he had defeated at their own game and had to move on. _

_The commander smiled. "You can relax now. It's not like you're going to death row or anything." He laughed, but Angel only swallowed hard and didn't speak. The commander saw the look on the boy's face and got serious. "Your records are quite long, you know. Theft seemed to be your favorite hobby until we finally caught you, which was a job in itself. I see you are also wanted for various murders...?"_

_"It was self defense, sir."_

_"Yes, yes, that's what they all say. But enough of that, let's get to the point. I have a job offer for you."_

_"A job, sir?"_

_"Yes. As you know, as the head of this prison, I have many enemies, and there are quite a few of them that are wanted, not only here, but also other places. Do you follow me?"_

_"So far, sir."_

_"Sometimes there is just no way to punish them or stop their crimes, so elimination is the wisest and best choice for everyone."_

_Angel's eyebrows shot upwards. "You want me to be your bounty hunter?"  
_

_The commander laughed good-naturedly. "Ah, you catch on so quickly. Yes, that is exactly what I want from you."_

_Angel stood up from his chair. "So under normal circumstances, someone would be put in jail or executed for murder, but in this case you're going to pay me to take out your enemies? I don't think so."_

_"I didn't say anything about payment in money, Angel. Now sit back down." Angel did. "If you do accept this and do a good job, the better the chances get for your freedom. You complete all of the assigments I give you, and you'll be a free man."_

_Angel thought on this for a moment. Did the commander mean just free as in out of prison, or _free_, as in out of prison and not having to worry every day about getting caught by the police? He asked the commander._

_"I said free and I mean free, boy. I would clear your records from the past and you would no longer be wanted, as long as you didn't commit more crimes later."_

_Angel's heart jumped. This was almost too good to be true, but the commander went on talking without giving Angel time to think about it._

_"You're strangely gifted with these... unique powers, and we all know it. I've seen you use them with my own eyes, when you were intent on escaping, and I'm sure you weren't going as hard as you could if-"_

_"Commander," Angel said, reaching out his hand. "I'll take the job."_

_The commander stood, smiling, and shook Angel's hand hard. "Good deal. You won't regret it."_

The door of Titans' Tower shook violently, then exploded inwards. Angel shielded his face from the debris with his arm, and tried to regain his senses through the confusion of the smoke and blaring alarm. Angel backed up from the door when he saw three figures through the clearing smoke walking towards him. He didn't know if he should run or fight, but didn't have time to decide. Stardust flew over his head to meet the intruders head-on, and she landed in the doorway, her starbolts charged and ready, the rest of the Titans right behind her.

"All right, who are you?" Stardust demanded, her eyes glowing.

The smoke cleared somewhat more, and the figures outside were starting to take more shape. One of them, a man in a full body suit of armor, his face hidden by a helmet, held out some sort of badge. "We are the police of Dimension X."

Angel gasped slightly, but no one seemed to hear him. He backed up again, but one of the officers, another man, leaped forward and grabbed him by the arms, attempting to lock his wrists together by a metal band, but he was blasting away by a starbolt.

"Now hold on just a second here," Stardust said. "If you're police, why are you here kidnapping our friend?"

"He is wanted all over the dimensions by police everywhere," the last officer said, a woman. "His record goes to show he is guilty of unpardonable crimes."

Stardust turned to face Angel. "Is that true?"

Angel looked up into her purple glowing eyes and felt like a little kid confessing something to an angry parent. "Yeah, but I was cleared of all that a long time ago. I don't even know why they're here." He nodded to the police.

"He deserves to be in prison for what he has done," one of the men said, aiming his high powered gun at Angel. Stardust held up her hand to make sure he didn't shoot.

"I don't know about all this," Talon said, touching Angel's arm. "Angel's a good guy, and he wouldn't do that kind of stuff... whatever you say he did."

"He has done them," the other man said. "And we are required to bring him back with us." He raised his weapon quickly and was about to fire, but his gun was burst to pieces by an oncoming starbolt. Stardust frowned deeply and was about to demand a more thorough explanation, but the female officer jumped on her and they engaged in hand-to-hand.

One of the men followed the woman's lead, and Rorek took him on without hesitation. Talon and Rusty stood idle, but Angel flew out the broken doorway in an effort to escape, at least for a little while so he could catch his breath.

The fight in the doorway made its way onto the rocks outside, somehow across the water, and into the city, and quite a fight it was. The woman aimed some kind of strange gun and fired, it's contents hitting Stardust in the stomach and plastering her to a tall building to where she couldn't move. The same happened to Rorek, and when they were out of the fight, Rusty and Talon jumped forward and took their places, though Talon was quickly taken down and against the wall with Rorek and Stardust. Rusty stood on a hovering rock, narrowing his eyes and adjusting his small black mask. Then he raised his hands and boulders were ripped from the ground and went flying in the direction of the woman and the man. They found their mark and sent them flying, or at least temporarily. The man retaliated with a shot from a laser gun that knocked Rusty off his rock, and once he was down he was restrained plastered against the wall as well.

The woman raised her gun and looked around. "Where's the boy?"

The man nodded to his left. "There."

Angel had made an attempt to get away for now, but the remaining man had come after him and was doing his best to take him down. Angel shot off a few bolts of electricity, but they all missed their target. He knew he could defeat this man in a hearbeat, but fighting with the Dimension X police would only add to his record and result in unknown punishment, so he just attempted to avoid the whole thing and get out of here for the time being. But that wasn't happening. The police, and this man especially, seemed intent on taking Angel back to X with them dead or alive.

The man fired off his laser gun, but Angel dodged quickly, his heart pounding at the desperatness of his situation. The others didn't know why this happening, but Angel knew all too well. His work as a bounty hunter had bought him his freedom, but there was no normal life for him. He was feared and hated, but was wisely respected as well. Eventually the stress had taken its toll on him, and he had left the dimension entirely. At his next destination, the living was rougher than it had been before, and the authorities had a covetous eye for Angel, and eventually forced him into work for them, which resulted in the murder of the commander of Dimension X, thanks be to Angel. But it wasn't like he really had a choice, for he had been made to do their work for them, and death was the penalty if he didn't. He had tried leaving he dimension before things got too bad, but they captured him and locked him in a dungeon-like place and left him half starved, unable to break out, until he agreed to their demands. He had felt awful for offing the commander, especially after his generosity of getting his freedom from the man. But there was no going back on it now; nothing could be said or done to change the past, but the X police had revenge in their hearts and were determined to carry out a deserving punishment.

Now Angel, half panicked, knew that if the police caught him he would surely be dead in the next twenty-four hours. He didn't want to fight, and he couldn't run away, but he was not giving in. He just didn't know how to stall them.

The man managed to grab Angel's arms, after jumping across a few rooftops, and now held him in a vice-like grip. He said in a hissing voice, "You're going to pay for what you did to the commander,

#468."

Angel growled and struggled to get away without using his powers, but the situation was getting desperate and he knew he had to do something. He closed his eyes and let his powers surge through him, and the man was shocked savagely and stood there, momentarily paralyzed. Angel jerked his arms out of the man's grasp, then stopped when he heard something whistling through the air, then a feminine battle cry. He looked up and was shocked to see Miss Metal coming down through air, as she had just jumped off her hoverboard, and she planted a hard kick into the unmoving man's face, slamming him off the roof of the building and onto the ground in front of the rest of the Titans.

"Miss Metal!" Stardust cried, struggling once agan to get free of the strange bands that held her to the wall of the building, but it was impossible. Had the girl taken out the police officer just so she could have the fight with Angel to herself? Was this revenge for the way he had beaten her a few months ago, leaving her nearly dead? Stardust didn't know, but she didn't want to leave Angel facing off with three of those people and Miss Metal. She struggled to get free and looked at Rorek. "We have to help him. He can't take on all four of them by himself."

"Yes he can," Rorek said, "but you're right, it doesn't mean we have to make him." He charged up his powers, but they did nothing to break the restraint.

"What in the world?" Talon said suddenly. "Look!"

They looked up at Angel and Miss Metal and were amazed to see them embrace each other briefly. Stardust's mouth fell open and she couldn't speak for a few seconds, then she grew angry. "I knew it! That traitor... I'm gonna kill him when I get outta this thing!"

"Hold on," Rorek said, trying to raise a hand to shush her, but he still couldn't move. "Look, she's helping him fight. Perhaps she's on our side."

Stardust just growled, but Miss Metal _was _helping Angel. She knocked the three officers around like they were just a warm up, and when they were down at out she turned back to Angel and hugged him again, this time harder and longer.

On the rooftop, Angel stroked Miss Metal's hair tried to catch his breath. "Faith," he said, tilting her chin up so he could look into her eyes. "You don't know what you've done. Now those people are going to chase after me even more than they were. I'm _wanted_ for so-"

She cut him off by kissing him abruptly. When she stopped, he was quiet, and she raised her finger to his mouth. "It doesn't matter you've done. I'm not going to just sit back and let them take you away."

Back down on the ground, Stardust was practically steaming at Angel's unloyalty to the team. All this time when he had gone out late at night, he had been out gallivanting with _Miss Metal?_ She almost found it too weird to be true. And he had lied repeatedly, telling them that he was "out" doing different things he obviously had not been doing. Under normal circumstances, Stardust wouldn't care if Angel found a girl he liked, but _this_- this girl was a villain, an enemy! Her eyes glowed, and she struggled hard with her super strength to get free, and finally the thing holding her down snapped. She ripped the bands off the rest of the team and looked at Rorek.

"We'd better go on home. I have to talk with Angel."

"I knew you would have tried to stop it if you found out," Angel was saying later at the tower. "So I just thought it was best to cover the whole thing up."

"You know, this is so stupid, I almost feel like your mother," Stardust said. "Look, it'd be none of my business if you wanted to have a relationship with some girl. But this is MISS METAL, need I remind you."

"She's a nice girl," Angel said, crossing his arms.

Talon spoke up. "How can a villain be nice? It just doesn't happen, Angel."

"Well, it happened here. And I know a lot about her that you guys don't."

Stardust scowled. "I'm sure you do. But anyway, I don't care what her motives or excuses are for being a villain. She's still a huge problem that works alongside Eva, and I'm not going to let her romance you into making her way into the tower."

"That's not what she's doing!"

"How do you know for sure?" Rorek said. He had stayed out of the argument until now. It was as if he just couldn't bite his tongue any longer.

"Because I know her. It's hard to explain, but I just know. And I also know that I love her."

Stardust put a hand to her forehead. She knew how he felt. "Well, something's gotta be done about this. We can't have heroes and villains together, it just does not work." She turned towards the door. "I'll be back. I have to go talk to my mom."

"You can't be serious!" Eva exclaimed. Miss Metal looked down at the floor of the dark lair. "I can't believe you. What are you thinking?"

Miss Metal shrugged. "I had to tell you sometime."

"That's right, you did." Eva whirled around on her heel and flipped her red hair to the side. "And I doubt I'm going to be the only one upset about this." She dragged Miss Metal into the next dark room, where it was mostly shadows and barely any light.

Miss Metal felt awful. When pressed by Eva about where she had been, Miss Metal had just spilled the whole story without thinking. Now who knows what was going to happen.

"It seems that Miss Metal has a boyfriend," Eva said, her voice echoing off the walls. "And it's not just anybody; he's a Teen Titan."

There was silence for a moment, followed by, "Good. We could use someone on the inside." Slade rose up out of his chair and looked down at the two girls. "Miss Metal, I didn't know you were so clever. Good job."

Miss Metal closed her eyes tight to keep herself from exploding in a rage of metals. She felt like knocking Slade onto his face, and she knew she just couldn't go along with this anymore. "No," she said boldly, though she felt quite small and scared on the inside. "I'm not doing this to win their trust. I'm not betraying him. I won't."

Slade stepped down to the ground and looked down at her silently. Then he reached out and grabbed her by the throat. "You will do as I tell you. You have the skill and the ability to take the Titans down from the inside. Now all you have to do is go through with it. If you don't, I'll kill them for you, saving your boyfriend for last and making you _watch_. And after that, I'll get rid of you." He shoved her backwards, and she fell down to the floor. "It's such a wonderful plan, isn't it?" he said sarcastically. "But you can avoid it all if you merely do it yourself. Though you'll have the help of Eva later on, you still need to concentrate on winning their trust for now. Do I make myself clear?"

She was tempted to attack him full-force, but knew she had better not. She nodded, and he waved them away. Back in the other room, Eva looked at her and smirked. "I know it hurts, but, well, you'll get over it." She laughed quietly and walked away.

Miss Metal hit her knees in grief. She knew that there was no way she could harm Angel, even if she wanted to. Not now; their relationship had gone too far, she loved him too much. Well, she would go along with Slade's plan for now. But no matter what he told her, in the end, she was not going to betray Angel. Not a chance.


	14. Chapter 14

_London, 1025_

_The harsh winter winds whipped through the valley and whistled against the castle unmercifully. The small creek that surrounded the hill in a circle was frozen almost down to the dirt below, serving as almost solid ground to a possible oncoming attack, though at the moment there was no sign of one. The snow fell softly from the moonless night sky, but was thrown around in every direction once it made contact with the wind._

_Inside the tall castle, a woman in an elegent red gown sat on a velvet chair at a long table beside the fireplace, her face in her hands, weeping quietly. She finally dabbed her eyes with a small cloth and motioned to the guard beside her._

_"Bring my son to me," she said._

_The guard nodded once and turned down a hall, his suit of armor clinking heavily on the stone floor until he reached a thick wooden door. He rapped on it twice and slammed the brunt end of his spear on the ground. "Prince Rorek, Her Majesty requests your accompaniment in the dining hall." Then he walked away slowly._

_The door opened and the young prince made his way to the table the queen was seated at, a look of concern on his face. He bowed before his mother, and while still on one knee, took her hand and kissed her knuckles gently._

_"What is it, mother?"_

_"Rorek, it's your sister, Via," the woman said. "She has been missing from the castle for hours, and the storm outside is getting worse!"_

_Rorek stood, though still holding his mother's hand. "Why didn't I hear of this sooner? Who's searching for her?"_

_Her Majesty dabbed her eyes again with her free hand. "There are guards out looking for her, but this weather is only making things worse."_

_"But Via cannot-"_

_"I know how deeply you care for your sisters, Via especially, but it appears there is nothing we can do at the moment, only what we are capable of. There is little chance we're going to find her tonight."_

_A protective pain stabbed in Rorek's chest. "Then we will find her frozen to death in the morning. We have to do something now." He dropped his mother's hand. "I'll go out and search for her."_

_"Rorek, no, you'll freeze!"_

_"Better I than her."_

_"No, I forbid you go out there." She put her face in her hands. "I can't lose both of you."_

_Rorek stared down at her briefly, knowing her had no choice but to obey her wishes, though everything inside of him told him to search for Via. He had cared for her especially, despite having seven sisters, since she was born, and she had favored him above even her mother. Rorek, who was the only son to the king and queen, was the oldest at sixteen, the girls all being under the age of ten. Via was barely five, far too young to know her way around the large grounds of the castle, but that was not the main concern. She had suffered from a severe illness two years before and been struck with blindness ever since. In that time, Rorek had been the young girl's eyes, taking her everywhere with him and willing to protect her with his very life. And he didn't plan on sitting back and doing nothing now, despite the queen's orders._

_He bowed slightly at her. "As you wish, mother." It was not like him to lie or disobey, but he felt that this situation could be an exception. He refused to let his sister freeze to death while holding back and doing nothing, and he left the room without another word._

_But his mother knew what he was up to. She knew him well enough to spot his stubornness and catch his lies, which were very rare, but she did not stop him from going out and searching. She was certain that he had a better chance of finding Via than than all the guards and servants combined, and was also certain that he would come back in good health. He always did; it was as if he was immune to harm. And that's why she let him go._

_Rorek took a long coat and a scarf from his bedchamber, wrapping the latter around the bottom half of his face and shrugging the coat onto his shoulders. The cold outside was almost unbearable for the searching guards, but Rorek knew he could chance it. He had to, or it would probably mean his sister's life. _

_He put his hands on the frame of the small opening of the window and looked down three stories at the ground. The snow would support his landing, but he knew he had little to worry about. He had jumped from higher than this before, and had been perfectly fine. He decided that it must be his strange powers that enabled his body to perform such stunts without being hurt. He closed his eyes briefly and wondered why he had been blessed -or cursed- with such powers. The people in the village claimed the prince was a wizard, and had threatened to hang him on the gallows for his evil. He had tried to convince them personally that it was not true, but they took no heed to his words and were going to kill him, had not the queen given her word that whoever even thought of harming the prince would be tortured in the dungeon until they died. And nothing offensive had been said ever since._

_Rorek took a breath and jumped from the window, flipping over gracefully and landing lightly in the deep snow. Well, he was out from under the watchful eye of his mother, but where to look for Via? She could be anywhere, and if missing for hours she could have traveled quite a distance. For a moment Rorek was clueless at what to do, but closed his eyes and forced himself to trust his instinctive powers instead of his physical senses. It sounded quite strange to others, but now he had a feeling he should search North. He headed in that direction without a second thought, holding up an arm to shield his face from the blowing snow._

_After a while of trecherous walking, Rorek had traveled the distance of the valley and was now in deep woods. He called out his sister's name, but there was little that could be heard over the howling wind. He tried again, louder. "Via!" No answer. He hoped she wasn't already frozen, or suffering from hypothermia. He scanned around the snow-covered trees, but could barely see anything, for there was no moon to light the path. He turned and took another step, which happened to lead to a painful slide down a steep bank, and to make it worse, he hit every rock and tree on the way down. When he finally slid to a stop at the base of the slope, he just knew that his royal green prince's uniform was torn and his knee-high leather boots scuffed, but no matter. There were more important things to worry about than keeping noble clothes flawless. He stood up, spitting snow and brushing off his coat. He squinted. "Via!"_

_Cursed silence. Rorek raised his hand and ignited a sphere of white light, which lit the trees and reflected off the soft snow. Now he yelled with all the power he had in his voice. "Via!" Nothing. But he wouldn't let himself panic; he calmed himself and drove on, but only took a few steps when he heard something vocal. He stopped and strained to listen, then heard a wail in the distance. Without even thinking about which way to go, he plunged slightly to the right and called out her name again. This time, an answer._

_"Rorek!" It was drawn out and full of agony, which tore at Rorek's heart as he moved forward. It was Via all right; he couldn't mistake her voice for anyone else's._

_And finally he saw her. She was curled up in the snow under a slightly elevated fallen log, shivering violently and crying nearly frozen tears. He let the light from his power die down, then hit his knees beside her, taking her arms in his strong hands and massaging them briefly before shedding his coat and wrapping it around her. Her teeth chattered, and he ran his hands on both sides of her face, shocked by how cold her cheeks were and how blue her lips had turned. The cold took advantage of his coatless frame and snapped at his skin, but he ignored it, lifting Via into his arms as she held onto him as tight as her small and nearly frozen fingers could manage._

_Rorek followed his footprints and headed back the way he had came, but stopped at the base of the slope. How was he supposed to get up there while carrying his sister? Maybe there was a way around. He looked, but was agonized to see none. He sighed and decided that desperate times called for desperate measures, and he sat Via gently on the ground beside him, but she held tight to his arm._

_"Rorek, don't leave me!" she cried._

_"I'm not leaving you," he replied, carressing her face briefly. "Just stay put."_

_Via, having always trusted her brother, nodded slowly and hugged his coat tighter around her shivering frame. Seeing nothing out of her blind eyes, she jumped a little when she felt him move beside her, then heard an earsplitting sound of moving rock in front of them. She wanted to ask him what was going on, but remembered he had told her to stay put and thought better of it. Only little did she know, Rorek had summoned enough of his telekinesis power to split the hill in front of them and move the rock to where the two sections separated, thus creating a manipulation to the ground to where a part of it was even with the other side. He picked her up again and carried on._

_Back at the castle, Her Majesty was nearly frantic with worry. She suddenly regretted allowing Rorek to go, fearing that she was about to lose Via and her only son, if she hadn't already. She paced the floor in nervousness and ended up on the first floor of the castle, near ready to scream, when there was a thud at the main doors, then they slammed open. She gasped when she saw Rorek, covered in snow, holding Via wrapped in a coat._

_She ran over and pulled them inside, slamming the door against the harsh wind and leading Rorek to the fireplace. "Via, is she-"_

_"She's all right, but a little frostbitten, I'm afraid," Rorek said. His mother couldn't help but notice the shiver in his voice and that he was wearing no coat. _

_"Thank goodness," she breathed, and stripped most of the clothes right off Via, coming back with two dry blankets and wrapping her in one, putting the other over Rorek's shoulders. A servant brought some hot tea, and Rorek made Via drink, while the servant woman bowed and left the room. Rorek's other sisters were with their caretaker, a short middle-aged woman who practically loved children more than life itself. Rorek sat down beside Via, keeping her close to the fire and making sure she drank the hot tea. Her Majesty put her hand on Rorek's forehead and commented on how cold he felt, but he insisted that he was fine. _

_Just then the king entered the room in all his glory and fancy apparel, sending the guards and servants bowing and scrambling to get out of his way. He ignored them completely and looked down at Via as if her being half frozen was the most normal thing in the world, and his voice hinted at the same thing. "She's quite all right, then? Good, I was afraid my best guards would freeze during the search."_

_The queen's eyes snapped, and she whirled to face her husband. "Yes, Via's fine, no thanks to you, you old fool! Rorek went out into this blizzard and risked his life to save her! He's more of a father to my daughters than you ever thought about being!"_

_His Majesty stared at his queen in slight surprise, then looked as if he was going to dethrone her. "Don't you dare speak to me that way."_

_The queen was immediately silent. She cast her eyes to the ground, and her husband went on talking. "You sent our son out into that storm?"_

_Rorek stood up, draping his blanket over Via, and stood in front of his father almost challengingly. They were of equal height and width, and almost muscle as well. Rorek made stern eye contact with the king and said boldly, "She did not make me search for Via, but I would commend her even if she did. She obviously cares more for her family than her battle army, unlike you."_

_The slap that came next would have driven Rorek to the floor, had he not had such quick reflexes to keep his balance, though he had not escaped the blow. "You're foolish to disrespect me!" He cursed and threw another swing, but Rorek twisted away and blocked with his wrist. Then the king turned to Her Majesty in a rage. "You've raised our son into a weakling, a coward! I intended him to soonly become a knight in my army, but you have trained him to be worthless, treating women the way he does. Hah! Women do not deserve respect, especially the way he gives it! I know you raised him to think of women as the most respected thing a man can have... fool."_

_"I did not want him to turn out like you," she hissed. "And he doesn't need to be a knight, he needs a wife! Don't you know anything? All the young girls this side of the country want his hand in marriage."_

_"A _wife_?" The king laughed. "You are pathetic. Women only ruin a good man... which is what I can only wish your son was."_

_"So now he is only my son? You're a tyrant, and always have been. And you apparently do not know Rorek at all. He is the warrior that you can only imagine, so don't you dare call him weak."_

_"A warrior? I do not think so. He's a wizard."_

_"I'm not," Rorek finally spoke up, dabbing the blood that seeped from his lip. "Think what you will, but I won't tell you again."_

_The king raised a hand and looked at his wife. "You can say what you want, but it will make no difference to me. Rorek's going into battle training, and he will be a knight in my royal army, willingly or not, it's going to happen. He's going to be in battle, and he will most likely _die_ in battle. So let's just see what kind of hero I can turn your coward of a son into."_


	15. Chapter 15

Stardust sighed, her arms crossed, and looked down at Angel hopelessly. He was sitting in the kitchen sitting in a chair in front of her, impatiently being interrogated as he had been for the past half hour.

"What are you thinking?" she said. "Your girlfriend is a _villain!_ She's evil, and she's out to kill us."

Angel drummed his fingers on his knee. "She's not evil. I've already told you, she's not doing this wilfully. She's being forced to work for someone, why can't you understand that?"

"She may be telling the truth, but do you know how easily she could be setting us up with this? Maybe she just wants your sympathy to lead you and the rest of us right into a trap."

Angel growled through his teeth. "Who do you think knows her better, me or you? I'm sure she's telling me the truth."

"You don't know how to be careful, do you?" Stardust said, leaning forward challenginly.

Angel stood from his chair to confront her further, but Rorek finally stepped into the argument, separating them with himself and holding up his hands. "Stop this," he said, the frustration clear in his voice. "Stardust, what if this girl is telling the truth and something bad happens to her because we don't help? We may be gambling with her life."

Stardust gave one last glare at Angel and turned away. "That's why we're going to help as much as we can, but I'm not putting the whole team in danger. Angel's going to have to figure this out on his own, then we'll help when the fighting comes in."

Talon spoke up from the far wall beside the refridgerator. "You sound a lot like your father right there."

Stardust turned her guns on Talon. "Don't compare me to him!"

Rorek caught her gently by the shoulder and looked at her sternly. "Let's not be fighting amongst ourselves. It won't help anything." She submitted under his touch and looked at the floor.

After a brief silence, Angel brought up the subject again. "Believe me, I'm going to prove to you that she's telling the truth. And we have to help her before something bad happens."

"Well, she's still a villain," Stardust mumbled, and Rorek stabbed her with his elbow.

"Did not your mother say just yesterday that you cannot help who you love? It doesn't make it safe, but you still cannot control it."

Yes, Kory and Stardust had had a long talk the night before, involving mostly Angel and Miss Metal, but Rorek as well, little did the rest of the team know, and she did not want them finding out now, so she dropped the subject completely.

Talon cleared her throat a few minutes later and held up a piece of paper. "On a lighter note, there's a dance being held in a few days, sorta like a prom. We could tell Miss Metal to come to that and we could find out more about her."

Stardust choked on her own spit. A dance? She was too embarrassed to go, and besides, she didn't even know how to dance. And she didn't have anything to wear. And she didn't have a date. The list of her excuses went on and on in her head, but they wouldn't come out of her mouth.

"That sounds like fun," Rusty said. "And it _would_ be a good way to find out more about Angel's girlfriend."

Angel just crossed his arms and didn't agree, though he didn't protest either. He merely said, "I don't have anything to wear."

Later on that night, Rusty dragged a reluctant Rorek into a tuxedo store in the mall, the former excited about finding something fancy to wear, though the latter was completely silent until poked in the shoulder and told to pick something.

"I have no idea what I'm doing," Rorek said in obvious confusion.

Rusty frowned at him. "Come on, it's not that hard." He glanced to his left and laid eyes on a black tux about in Rorek's side. He grabbed it. "Look, this is very... you. Try it on." He handed it to Rorek, who only stood there until shoved into the changing room.

Talon and Stardust were in the mall as well, only looking at prom dresses. Talon had decided on hers an our ago, a short red little thing that looked liked something a salsa dancer would wear, but Stardust didn't say that. She was too busy searching for the perfect dress, which she was still yet to find.

Talon finally weaved through the people and sat down on a bench. "Come on, Star, it can't be that hard." When there was no answer, she saw that her friend was across the hall and staring into a store's display window that held a long blue gown. She got up and joined her. "You like that?"

Stardust nodded, her mouth slightly open. She walked into the store like a hypnotized zombie, and Talon followed her. Stardust pulled a the same dress, only a different size, off the rack and held it up to her, gazing in the mirror. Talon smiled behind her.

"That looks real nice," she said. Stardust litterally flew towards the dressing room, then quickly dropped to the ground, looking around sheepishly to see if anyone had been paying attention, though they weren't. She walked the rest of the way to a stall.

Talon stretched out in the floor in front of the door, fighting sleep. She had laid awake practically the whole night before, then walked around the mall half the day without resting. She glanced at herself in the full length mirror beside her and ran her fingers through her boy-shirt hair. She had thought about letting it grow back, but decided to just keep it short. Long hair was a job in itself to take care of, and she didn't know how Stardust could put up with it; no less Rorek.

Stardust opened the door and turned, modeling herself and looking at Talon for advice, who gave a thumbs-up. "You'd just better hope it looks good with what Rorek's wearing."

Stardust ran her hands down her hips. "What makes you think I'm going to the dance with Rorek?"

Talon grinned. "It was just a notion. I only figured..."

Stardust felt that hiding the fact that she wanted to go with Rorek was pointless, so she said, "He hasn't asked me. So I guess I'll just go alone."

Talon raised her eyebrows. "Why don't you ask him?"

"No way."

"Too embarrassed?"

"Too busy."

Talon shook her head. "Yeah right."

The next afternoon, Stardust was washing dishes in the sink and was tapped on the shoulder. She dried her hands and turned to see Rorek. She smiled. "Hey."

"Hello." He stared at her for a moment, and by the way his knuckles were pressed to his mouth, she knew that something exciting was coming. "Stardust, I wanted to ask you if you were going to the dance with anyone."

"No," she replied, keeping her face straight, but inside was fighting her unbridled joy so she didn't fly away while he was talking.

"Well, perhaps I could escort you there, then?"

"Yes, I'd love to."

Now that that was done, neither of them knew what to say, so they only stood there giggling at each other stupidly until Rorek said, "Well, I guess I'll leave you to your... work."

"All right," she said, a smile plastered to her face.

He started to leave the room, then stopped and turned back to face here. "Stardust, there's something else I have been meaning to ask you."

"Yeah?"

He stared at her briefly, and she saw him take a deep breath before he said, "I would like to ask if you will allow me the honor of courting you."

Stardust couldn't control her emotions now. Her feet left the ground and she hovered in the air. "Yes, you can! Yes. I... I thought you'd never ask me."

He looked startled. "You have?"

"Yeah. I was gonna ask you, but figured you'd find that a little inappropriate, so..." She didn't finish her sentence, but she shot forward and threw her arms his neck, then quickly drew back, ebarrassed. "Uh, sorry."

"No, it's quite all right." He bowed briefly at her, then left the room in a hurry, and Talon came in right after.

"I wondered what was taking you so long," she said, continuing the dishwashing job that Stardust hadn't finished yet. Then she said sarcastically, "What, too busy with your boyfriend? Oh, I forgot, you're not dating. My bad."

"He is my boyfriend," Stardust said coolly.

Talon laughed, then looked at Stardust's face, her mouth circular. "Seriously? Are you two an item now?"

"Yeah, he asked to court me right after he asked me to the dance." She grabbed Talon's hands and they jumped around in a circle, screeching like crazy fangirls. Then the collapsed on the couch, and after a moment of calming down, Stardust asked, "Are you going with Rusty?"

Talon blushed. "He didn't really _ask_ me, but we just kinda decided on it together." She suddenly grinned deviously. "You know, Star, I only brought up this dance so I could hook you and Rorek up. Meeting Miss Metal there was just a... cover-up."

"Are you serious?" Stardust said, laughing. "You evil thing." She stood up and punched Talon's shoulder. "But thanks. You just did me a really big favor, so I guess I owe you."

Talon laughed too and rubbed her arm. "You sure do."

Two nights later, the team met up on the dock for the prom. Stardust held her dress to keep from dragging the ground in one hand, the other on Rorek's arm. She thought he looked very nice in his black tux, then tried to imagine him in eleventh century garb, but failed. Talon and Rusty were pushing each other around as they waited on Angel and Miss Metal, who still hadn't showed.

"I hope Angel's girlfriend is coming," Stardust said, struggling to fight down her nerves.

Rorek suddenly stepped out in front of her and bowed at the waist, his hand out, palm up. "Would you like to dance?"

Stardust giggled and took his hand. "Yes, but I don't know how."

Rorek moved her free hand onto his shoulder, then placed his on her hip. "Just follow my lead." He took the first few dance steps gracefully, and Stardust did her best to mimick his movements, though she was not as good as he was. She didn't think she had ever seen someone waltz so gracefully.

"You're good at this," she said.

"Thank you, you're doing quite well yourself. Follow me," he reminded gently, when she stepped out of line.

She laughed. "I just hope we don't get attacked, like my parents did at the prom."

"Really? What happened?"

"It's a long story, but I'll-" She was suddenly interrupted by a giant explosion in the water, and people running and screaming. A huge repltilian creature burst through the dock and roared loudly.

Rorek hesitated before releasing Stardust's hands, who said irritably, "As I was saying about getting attacked..."


	16. Chapter 16

The monster-like creature pulled itself from the water, digging its long claws into the dock and ripping long gashes in the wood. It stood at its full heigth, which was nearly ten feet tall, and made a gripping motion with its clawed hands, which were connected to almost humanoid arms. The scales on it's back seemed to frill out, its tail curled, and it opened its huge mouth and roared.

Talon's face turned pale and she looked at Rusty. "What are we supposed to do with that?"

"Well, I guess we take it down. It may be easier said than done, but we might as well try."

On the other side of the dock, Stardust prepared her starbolts and took a step forward, but Rorek held out a hand in front of her. "Let me handle this. You wouldn't want to tear your dress."

She looked at him quizically, but he took off his blue corsage and shed the tuxedo jacket, then went to meet the monster head on. He didn't waste any time with an attack, which hit the monster square in the face, sending it down on its side to the dock below. People screamed and scattered to hide behind a over-turned table, having nowhere to run and no escape.

"What's he doing?" Talon said, waving her hand in Rorek's direction. "Why isn't Stardust helping him?" Rusty shrugged, merely glad that he didn't have to join the battle yet.

The reptilian creature regained its feet, then roared furiously, its red eyes set on Rorek, who was planted on the dock between the monster and the civilians. The creature took a hard step forward, then came at a full run, opening its mouth and letting out a burst of blue fire, only to be cancelled out by a white shield thrown from Rorek's hand, who after that took a leap and got in four dangerous hits before he made contact with the ground again.

The monster roared savagely, only this time from the pain of the open wounds it had received from Rorek's deadly power. _Rorek, let me help you,_ Stardust thought, though he seemed to be handling himself quite well so far. As the two-way battle raged on, Stardust's mind wandered and she couldn't help but thinking that Rorek looked hot fighting in a white dress shirt and shining black shoes. She also admired that every time he dodged he escaped danger, and every time he attacked he hit home. If she had been a cartoon, she imagined that admiring hearts would be floating around her head.

But it was all cut short when the creature took a hard swipe with its claws and caught Rorek right across the chest, tearing his shirt clear off and drawing blood. He seemed to ignore the pain and threw up another shield to block an oncoming swipe, then glanced up at the barrage of starbolts that came raining down onto the monster, which roared again and shot blue fire once more, catching the dock ablaze and casting a blue light into the night.

Stardust, already regretting her next move in fear of ruining her dress, shot forward and landed a starbolt directly in the creature's mouth, then planted a double-fisted punch in its face that threw if off the dock and into the water with a huge splash. Still hovering in the air, she shielded her face with her arm, then squinted at the water when everything was still.

"Is it over?" Talon said."Did we-" But her last words were drowned out by the monster bursting from the water again and landing hard on the dock, splitting the wood slightly and putting a strain on the whole structure.

Stardust was suddenly infuriated. She felt like she couldn't do anything without getting interrupted by a villain or a monster, and it made her eyes charge up involuntarily. This thing had messed up her date- and worst of all, it had unforgivably hurt Rorek. She blasted foward in a rage, yelling and shooting eye beams, throwing punches and starbolts, and swiping kicks, ignoring the fact that she was in a long dress and no longer caring if she messed it up. The monster, trying to make a quick recovery from the force of the attack, took a hard snap at Stardust's hovering form, who grabbed it by the jaws and forcefully twisted its head to the side, driving its body to the ground. Then, still in an irritated anger, she drove a kick with her high-heeled sandal that forced the creature various yards into the air, and she threw the largest starbolt she could muster, hitting her mark squarely and sending it flying way out into the ocean waters. After a few minutes of waiting for it to surface again, only a few bubbles came up, and the battle was clearly over.

Stardust landed back on the ground, Rusty coming forward, making a peace sign with his fingers and punching her fist. "That was awesome!" He motioned his hand, as if thinking of a headline to a newspaper. "_Alien girl takes down monster with bare hands._ You and Rorek were great."

Rorek! Stardust whirled around and saw him sorting through what was left of his clothes. "Rorek, you're hurt. Are you okay?" She stepped foward, worry etched into her face, and placed a hand gently on his chest.

"I'm all right," he said. "It's not that bad of a wound."

"You're bleeding," she protested, picking up the shredded shirt he had been wearing and folded it up, pressing it lightly to the gashes.

She knew he was fighting to show pain by the way he cringed, though it was barely noticable, and his breath sucked in slightly. "Really, I'm quite all right. I've had things like this happen before."

"So have I, but it doesn't make it any less painful."

He smiled. "Wise words, Stardust." She smiled back shyly, then glanced over her shoulder when she heard two sets of footsteps. Angel and Miss Metal had finally arrived, arm in arm, and Angel looked up and down Rorek's bleeding torso.

"What'd we miss?"

"Only Godzilla!" Talon exclaimed. "Could you have been a little later, please?"

"Quit being sassy," he replied, but it only made her look pleased with herself. "I guess we should go back to the Tower and take care of Rorek's wound. Miss Metal can come with us."

For once, Stardust didn't protest. "Sounds like a good idea. Let's go."

Rorek gasped through his teeth as Stardust touched the medicated bandage to his chest, and she drew back at the open sign of pain. "No, go on," he said. "It's got to be done sometime."

She placed it back on and wrapped it around him, cringing more than he was, not wanting to hurt him. It was past midnight in the infirmary now, and she and the rest of the team had changed back into uniform. Stardust had looked her prom dress over and was relieved to see that it had escaped all sorts of damage, which was more than could be said for Rorek's tux. Somehow during the heat of the battle, it had been ripped completely in two.

"It's gonna cost a pretty penny to pay back on your tux we rented," she said sadly.

"Probably, but I'll take it in tomorrow and see if we can work out a deal. After all, we _did_ save a lot of people earlier tonight." He grinned. "Perhaps they'll have mercy."

"Well, the city government is our main source of income, so it's hard to tell. They might just take a chunk off our next paycheck."

"Maybe." Rorek slid off the metal table he had been sitting on and stretched carefully. Stardust's eyes fell on his nicely muscled abs, then she shook the thought from her mind and handed him his shirt.

"I don't guess you'll be wearing your armor anytime soon," she said.

Rorek shifted his sky-blue eyes at her, then placed a hand on his own chest, and his hand glowed briefly. He removed the bandage and set back his shoulders to show that there was no longer a wound, not even a scar.

Stardust blinked hard. "You healed yourself. I didn't know... why didn't you just do that in the first place?"

He tilted his head and said quietly, "Because I liked the attention you were giving me."

Stardust blushed hard, not even remembering the last time she was this embarrassed. "Well- yeah, so... uh, okay." She had no idea what she should say to that, but had even less of an idea when he ran his fingers under her chin and titled her face up towards his- and she no longer cared. He kissed her, and she returned it promptly, her fingers digging into the back of his neck, which he didn't seem to mind. And as their luck had it, the door slid open as if on cue.

"Hey, you- oh, sorry," Talon's voice said, and the door slammed shut.

Stardust looked at Rorek and shrugged, and irritated sigh escaping her lips, but he just smiled and kissed her again.

After admiring the space and build of the Tower, Miss Metal paced the floor of the training room and finally stopped to face Angel, who was sitting on a weight bench.

"Some prom," she said, smiling. "I didn't even get to dance with you, and you looked so nice in that suit of yours. Dressy, but nearly gothic. How did you accomplish that?"

Angel shrugged. "I just go to the right places." Then he stood up and flicked on the state-of-the-art radio that sat on a shelf in the corner, tuning it in to a slow music station. "But we don't have to be at the prom to dance, you know."

She smiled broadly, and they waltzed around the room, and Angel dipped her. She laughed, all the blood rushing to her head, and grabbed his jacket and pulled herself upright. After awhile of dancing, they both got tired and sat in the floor, Miss Metal's head in Angel's lap.

He fingered her golden hair and sighed contentedly. "I wish you could stay here with me, Faith."

Miss Metal's face fell. "Your friends don't trust me. I couldn't stay."

"Of course they don't trust you now, but after we get this thing sorted out, you won't be forced to work for anybody. My friends will like you then. Maybe you can even become a Titan."

She sighed. "I don't know about that; I just feel so out of place when I'm around them. I know they'd rather tear me apart than be my friend any day."

"That's not true. We just can't afford to trust everybody we come in contact with, and I understand where they're coming from; Stardust especially. I think she's heard a lot of stories from her mom about trust and betrayal. I guess she just doesn't want to make the same mistakes."

"I guess." Miss Metal closed her eyes, then sat up and looked him in the eye. "Angel, there's something I have to tell you."

Angel's expression grew very serious, and he touched her arm. "What? What is it?"

She sighed deeply. "It's not just that I'm being forced to work for someone. Slade has a ransom that I can't afford to put in danger."

"What do you mean?"

"You. Oh, Angel. He says he'll kill both of us if I don't do what he says. So I have to obey him. I can't afford to lose you. I_ can't_."


	17. Chapter 17

The sun rose early the next morning, casting a pink and orange glow across the clouds and reflecting off the waters as well as the many windows of the Tower. Angel's thick-soled boots hit the floor hard with every step he took down the hall, and Miss Metal's thin heels clicked on the un-carpeted part of the tile. She held onto his arm tight until they reached Stardust's bedroom door, which he knocked on loudly.

"Stardust," he said, knocking again impatiently. "Get up, we gotta talk to you."

The door slid open and Stardust leaned sleepily on the wall, wearing a tank top and short cotton shorts. "Come on, Angel, I'm barely even awake. What is it?"

"We _need_ you awake, and the rest of the team. Get them all up and meet us in the living room."

Stardust shrugged and grumbled as she closed the door about how this better be worth getting up at the crack of dawn. But about half an hour later, the whole team was seated on the couch as Angel and Miss Metal stood in front of the huge window in front of them. Talon yawned deeply and curled up on the couch, near sleep.

"All right," Angel said, "me and Faith- uh, Miss Metal-"

"It's okay," Stardust said. "I already knew her name."

Angel didn't bother to ask how, and he went on with what he had to say. "I don't find it as any surprise that Slade is the one controlling her. Sure, she could just melt his armor while he was wearing it, but he's got something hanging over her head that she doesn't want to risk. He says that if she doesn't obey his every command and suggestion, he's got the Titans on his hit list. He says he'll kill us."

Rusty scoffed. "He can't just waltz in and kill us. Does he even know who we are? We're the Teen Titans; we don't just get murdered without a fight."

Stardust spoke up. "You guys have to try to understand Slade. I know he's an old guy, but he's a dangerous powerhouse that we shouldn't underestimate. He can do more than you think he can. My parents had a lot of experience with him when they were younger, and he's had various chances to kill a few members of the recent team, but for some reason he held back. You just never know what he's gonna do."

"I don't care what he's gonna do," Angel said, clenching a fist. "We can take him down. If we try hard enough, we can take him."

"Angel," Stardust said softly, "you want to act without using your head. That can be a big mistake. So let's just think this over, okay?"

"I've thought about it all night," he said sternly. "I'm not going to leave Miss Metal just sitting in his grasp. We have to do something."

Talon shook herself awake and raised her hand. "I agree with Angel. Slade has been running around being a super villain for years. Shouldn't we at least try to take him out?"

"Even just trying could be really dangerous," Stardust said. "Like I said, Slade's stronger than you think. Trust me on that."

Angel sighed and put a hand to his forehead, then ran his fingers through his bangs. "Let me put it this way. With or without you, I'm going to at least try to take him out. But we all know that I need your help. That's all I'm asking."

Stardust looked at Rorek, who only raised an eyebrow. She closed her eyes briefly, then turned back to Angel. "All right, we're gonna help you. And since this is your plan and your mission, I'm temporarily putting you in charge of the team. Give us the orders you want, but remember that you're not only thinking for yourself now."

Talon and Rusty stared at Stardust. "You're making him team leader? And you actually trust that?" Talon exclaimed.

Stardust held up a hand. "Obviously Angel has a very well thought out plan. If he's this serious about it, it's probably flawless. He knows nobody's going to get hurt. Right, Angel?"

He stared at her for a minute, then cast his purple eyes to the floor. "Well, I don't actually have a _plan_. I-"

"You just expected to jump in there with guns blazing and hope for the best?" Stardust shook her head. "I thought so. Look, team leader, you need to think about this before you just lead us into a blind battle, okay?"

Stardust could almost see the gear's working in Angel's head. He put a hand on Miss Metal's shoulder, then raised his chin and looked down his nose at the team. "All right, Slade's only covering is the darkess, right? So we attack in the daytime when he's most vulnerable. He's gotta sleep sometime, so I say that's the best time to make our move."

Stardust pondered over the idea, then nodded thoughtfully. "Seems good enough. So when and how exactly are we going to do this?"

"This afternoon. Now I know we didn't get much sleep last night, but Slade could make Miss Metal do anything he wanted in just a day's time. We need to do this as soon as possible. And my plan is to make a stealthy entrance to his lair, and once inside, just go all out. I don't think there's going to be any outsmarting him, and it'll be six to two. We have the advantage, and odds are in our favor. I don't think the location of Slade's hideout is any secret, so we know how to get there. I hope you all can use stealth as a team."

**-T-**

Stardust picked up the phone and dialed Kory's work number, and after five rings was about to hang up until her mother answered.

"Hey Mom, it's me."

"Stardust! It is wonderful to hear from you. How are things going?"

"All right I guess. I don't have much time to talk, but we kind of have a dilemma here. But to make a long story short, I just wanted to tell you that we're going to attempt a take down on Slade. Today."

Kory was silent for a few moments, then sucked in her breath and said, "Oh Stardust, I do not believe this is a safe idea."

"Neither do I. But Angel's insistent on following through with this, and the whole team agrees that Slade needs to be out of Jump City's picture."

In her office cubicle, Kory leaned on the desk beside the computer and sighed. "I do not believe I can stop you. But you wish you the good luck."

"Thanks, Mom."

**-T- **

Stardust cut through the air gracefully like a bullet, Angel near her and Miss Metal on her hoverboard close beside him, Rusty controlling a large rock he was standing on, and Talon and Rorek on foot below them. The afternoon was unusually bright and sunny, but the closer they got to Slade's lair that was hidden in a cleft of rocks, the darker it seemed to get.

Though it was well hidden, Angel could see the metal door at the base of a rock, and he motioned silently in that direction, and they headed towards it. But just as they got close, metal discs seemed to shoot out of nowhere and exploded all around them, but most of them were blocked by a shield from Rorek.

"So much for stealth, he knows we're here!" Stardust said. She made her way through the exploding discs alongside Angel, and they both landed in front of the metal door, the rest of the team close behind. Stardust blasted the door to pieces and squinted as the smoke cleared away. The darkness inside was almost mind-boggeling compared to the bright sunshine outside, and Stardust couldn't see anything until Rorek charged up some light from his hand. Slade was merely standing in front of the room, his hands behind his back.

"Welcome, Titans," he said. "I've been wondering when you'd finally come to see me."

"We're not here to talk, Slade," Angel said.

"But I am," Miss Metal said. Her shoulders tilted back and she stared hard at the man in front of her. "I'm here to tell you that _cannot _control me. I won't do what you say, and, well, you can't make me anymore."

Slade stared at her with his one narrowed eye. "Hmm. I can see that you didn't want to tell me that without protection." He put a hand to his chin as if in thought, then suddenly whipped out a bo staff and show forward in the Titan's direction, yelling a deep battle cry the whole way.

The team went into action as one. Stardust hurled a starbolt, Rorek a shot of power, Angel electricity, Rusty a boulder, Talon a wave of light, and Miss Metal a huge beam from the ceiling. But Slade miraculously dodged every shot fired, and came in hard with his bo staff, connecting with Angel and sending him to the far wall.

"Do you really think that if your parents couldn't beat me, you could?" Slade taunted, pointing a finger at Stardust. Then he clenched his fist and looked at Miss Metal. "You are mine to control. I made a promise to you that if you chose to rebel, bad things would happen. I told you I would kill this team, and I will." He came forward at a fast run, and the Titans came to meet him head on. The battle that followed was too fast to put into words, but Slade and the Titans were nearly evenly matched until Eva appeared out of nowhere, and pretty soon the lair was in shambles.

The Titans jumped into a group beside each other, their powers charged and ready for more battle. Eva stood beside Slade, her eyes fixed on Miss Metal, who was in the protective hold of Angel. "Slade, I think they're attempting to challenge us."

"You're gonna see more than just a challenge," Stardust growled, and was ready to hurl a starbolt when a figure suddenly seemed to drop from the ceiling, planting a massive kick into Slade's face and taking Eva out as well. Stardust froze in mid-move and blinked hard. "Nightwing?"

Her father stabbed his bo staff into the ground and turned to face her. Kory dropped down from the hole in the ceiling and landed beside him, followed by a green skinned man, a cyborg, and a woman in a white cloak with her head covered. Nightwing raised an eyebrow. "Did you think we were going to let you do this alone? You're not the only team who wants to take down Slade."

Stardust smiled. It was the first time she had seen the last team of Titans together, and despite the situation, it made her feel a little uncomfortable. But there was no time for that now, Slade and Eva had recoverd from the blow they had received and were coming their way.

Nightwing and Stardust both raised a hand and yelled in unison, "Titans, go!" Both teams followed the order, and the fight was on.

The older team ganged up and took on Slade, while Stardust's Titans battle it out with Eva, who seemed to have gotten stronger and more skilled with her powers since the last time they had fought. Not only did she control vines, she also threw dark green orbs and that burned like acid when they came in contact with a solid object. Rusty got the first hit on her from behind with a rock, which immobilized her long enough for Talon to get in an unusually powerful attack into the battle. Eva twisted in mid-air and landed on her feet, her green dress blowing around her. Vines then ripped through the floor and came dangerously fast at the Titans, but Stardust managed to blast most of them with her starbolts until one smashed into her stomach and drove her headfirst into the wall. Stardust fell towards the ground, in and out of consciousness, and Rorek seemed to be the only one that noticed how hard she was going to hit the ground. He practically danced to catch her, and she fell safely into his arms.

On the other side of the lair, Kory punched Slade across the room with all her might, and Nightwing wouldn't have been surprised if he was split in two. But back when Nightwing was Robin, he had learned that the man was nearly indestructible, besides for the time when Terra took him down after she had caused a volcano. Now Raven said, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" and caught Slade before he hit the ground with her telekinetic powers, and she threw him in Cyborg's direction, who blasted him with his sonic cannon, and Changeling smashed him the form of a gorilla. Nightwing whipped out his bo staff and brought it down hard at Slade, who somehow managed to doge. Nightwing ducked out of the way when Eva went flying over his head, and the force of the blow she had received crushed her into the wall to where she couldn't move.

By now Stardust had regained consciousness, and she gathered her team around her once more. "Give it up, Slade," she panted. "We came here to fight for Miss Metal, and we're not gonna give up now." She charged up her starbolts. "But _you_ will." Her shot hit its target right in the stomach, and he hit the ground again.

Nightwing prepared his team to continue the fight, as did Stardust, but strangely Slade seem to vanish right into the ground. The Titans looked at each other in confusion, but after a few moments of standing there, it was clear that their foe was not coming back for now.

Angel turned to Miss Metal and kissed her squarely on the mouth. "It's all right now. He's not gonna come after you again."

Stardust smiled at the sight, then flew up and pulled Eva from her crater in the wall. "So... who volunteers to take Poison Ivy here to jail?"

**-T-**

Later on that evening, the Titans, and former Titans, all gathered at the tower and had their introductions. Stardust recognized Cyborg as the man her mother had described that originally owned Titans Tower. She crushed his hand as she shook it, and he laughed good-naturedly.

Stardust liked the way Kory and Nigthwing introduced her as "their daughter". For some reaon, it made her feel strangely special. After they all got aquainted, Stardust took them aside. "Mom," she said, "thanks for helping us. I don't think we could have done it without all of you." She turned to Nightwing, only staring at him for a moment, then grabbed him in a crushing hug. "Look, uh... I'm really sorry about the way I've treated you all this time... Dad."

His returning hug was very formal, with just a hand on her back, but his eyebrows shot up in surprise at what she had just said. She hadn't called him Dad for years, and had hardly acknowledged his presence. Tough as he was, he couldn't help but feel quite elated that his daughter finally accepted him. Kory appreciated this as well, as she clapped her hands lightly and said, "You have done the making up!" Then her smile faded, and she looked at the floor and lowered her voice. "Nightwing, I... I am thinking that you two are not the only ones that need to make up. It is you and I that I worry about."

"You're right, Kory," he replied, as Stardust stopped hugging him and stepped back. "We've been at each other's throats for too long. Maybe... maybe we could get back together, if you'd allow it. Kory?"

She smiled. "That is exactly what I was thinking."

Stardust, who had never thought she'd see this day, flew over beside Rorek and sat on the couch beside him. "So, you okay from the fight today?"

"I'm fine, Star. I was going to ask you the same thing. You took a hard hit earlier."

She shrugged a little. "Well, I guess it's to be expected. So, have you talked to Miss Metal since she's been here?"

"Actually, yes. She's a very nice girl. Very fit for Angel."

"That's great. I was kinda thinking about making her an official Titan. What do you think?"

"Whatever you like." He suddenly stood up and took her hand. "Come with me. I want to show you something."

She followed him out into the hall, where he stopped and turned to face her. He pulled out a small black box, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and opened it up, revealing a silver and diamond ring. "I saw it and thought you might like it."

Stardust sucked in her breath to a gasp. "Oh, _Rorek_. You shouldn't have done that for me. I love it."

He took it out of the box and slid it on her right ring finger. "I thought you would, Star."

She admired it on her hand, still in shock over the whole ordeal of it. "I can't believe... oh, it's beautiful. You're so sweet... I'm never going to take it off." She took him by the back of the neck and kissed him hard.

Outside the sun was setting on another day, but it was theoretically rising on a whole new world, a new adventure, a new hope. A new team. The next generation.

**Titans out. -T-**

**So this is where the Titans' story ends. I plan on making a part two eventually, since there are some things that I left out, but I will cover them later. Thanks to whoever R&R to story.**


End file.
